Here’s the text and slides of a talk I gave yesterday at an event called Harnessing the Commonwealth Advantage in International Trade. I want to talk today about issues related to tax treaties in developing countries, and their impact on tax certainty for multinational investors. To do this I think we have to consider two… Continue reading Certainty in the tax treaty regime
Category: The politics of international tax
European Economic and Social Council hearing on tax treaties and development
I’ve posted below the slides I just used for a presentation here at the European Economic and Social Council. The EESC has formed a study group to consider the question of “EU development partnerships and the challenge posed by international tax agreements.” Interesting discussions included the evidence base for the effect of tax treaties on… Continue reading European Economic and Social Council hearing on tax treaties and development
Visualising Uganda’s (and others’) tax treaties
Interesting news from Uganda, where the government announced in its latest budget that it has finished formulating its new tax treaty policy, and will be renegotiating treaties that don’t comply. Seatini and ActionAid Uganda will no doubt chalk this up as a success! The news report linked to above also states that the the government… Continue reading Visualising Uganda’s (and others’) tax treaties
The Panama papers and the OECD: re-reading Havens in a Storm
Last week I re-read Jason Sharman’s classic Havens in a Storm, described by Tax Analysts’ Martin Sullivan as “one of the best books out there for tax experts trying to make sense of big countries’ policies toward tax havens” (Sullivan’s review includes a length summary of the book). I was looking for a hook for… Continue reading The Panama papers and the OECD: re-reading Havens in a Storm
New data and working paper: measuring tax treaty negotiation outcomes
Today the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) and ActionAid are launching a new dataset that I’ve developed over the last year. It’s the product of over a year’s work, mostly by an intrepid team of research assistants in the LSE law department, to code the content of over 500 tax treaties signed by… Continue reading New data and working paper: measuring tax treaty negotiation outcomes
Revenue foregone through tax treaties in context
In the recent Tax Justice Network Africa report on tax treaties, I had a go at estimating some costs to governments, based on a back-of-the-envelope figure for cross-border dividend and interests payments. This is similar to the methodology used by SOMO and the IMF. (It’s a bit rough and ready, because some of the return… Continue reading Revenue foregone through tax treaties in context
Martin Hearson 