Category: Taxing multinational companies

What will BEPS mean for developing countries?

“Researchers at the OECD are not free to think the unthinkable. They have to take account of the interests of each and every member state.” Or at least that’s what a recent paper in the Review of International Political Economy concludes from its interviews with civil servants. Yet thinking the unthinkable, or at least “thinking… Continue reading What will BEPS mean for developing countries?

ABF’s misleading statements

I try to use this blog to stimulate debate, rather than just pumping out propaganda. I particularly enjoyed the debates that the Starbucks case provoked, with Ben Saunders‘ investigation involving more twists than The Killing. But today I’m quite annoyed, so this is probably a slightly more partisan post than normal. Day 2 of the… Continue reading ABF’s misleading statements

Associated British Foods versus ActionAid: a study in the tax avoidance debate

I was thrilled yesterday to see all the coverage of ActionAid’s report on Associated British Foods’ tax affairs in Zambia. I was involved in the early stages of the research, but a look at the full report shows that the course of the research took them a long way from our initial assumptions of what… Continue reading Associated British Foods versus ActionAid: a study in the tax avoidance debate

Taxing internet companies: shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?

I’ve just been reading a paper from 2006 entitled “The Rise of the OECD as Informal World Tax Organisation“. I’m not going to comment on its analysis of the OECD itself; what is interesting is its analysis of the case study of the OECD’s project on e-Commerce, which took place over a decade ago. Its… Continue reading Taxing internet companies: shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?

Is there anything new in this tax avoidance debate?

Over the break I read Sol Picciotto’s seminal International Business Taxation, published in 1992. It’s not hard to see why this book has acquired the status – in academia at least – of definitive account of the international tax system and its foundation. And it is interesting to see that the current outcry over transfer… Continue reading Is there anything new in this tax avoidance debate?