Category: Tax avoidance

Secondments, democratic scrutiny and corporate tax

I’ve just been next door to the high court (a perk of being at the LSE!) to watch the UK Uncut Goldman Sachs judicial review. For all those who lament the quality of public debate on questions of corporate taxation, this is surely a desirable outcome: a painstaking debate through which the judiciary will decide… Continue reading Secondments, democratic scrutiny and corporate tax

A campaigners’ code of conduct and the ABF story

I see Ben Saunders has taken up the ABF story with two really interesting posts, the first relating it to Bill Dodwell’s call for a campaigners’ code of conduct, and second to what on earth Zambia was doing signing its bonkers treaty with Ireland. As I’m writing this in a break from struggling to put… Continue reading A campaigners’ code of conduct and the ABF story

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

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?