When I made an amused reference to item on satellites in the new UN tax committee’s agenda, I wasn’t really sure what it was about. Richard Murphy thought it might be a plan to create tax havens in space. But, now that the UN secretariat have released some preliminary documents for the committee meeting next… Continue reading Satellites in geostationary orbit: a new tax justice issue?
Category: The politics of international tax
BEPS Part 2: international politics and developing countries
I wrote earlier this week with some questions about UK tax policy and the OECD’s Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. A lot of the areas that it’s looking at are probably not going to affect smaller developing countries very much, but there are a few things worth highlighting. I also recommend Chris… Continue reading BEPS Part 2: international politics and developing countries
BEPS part 1: three places where the Action Plan seems to contradict UK policy
I’ve finally got around to pronouncing on the OECD’s action plan on base erosion and profit-shifting. Surely the only response at this stage is that the jury is out. BEPS is an ordering principle for a quite disparate programme of work, and so it’s hard to reach an overarching verdict. Later this week I’ll write… Continue reading BEPS part 1: three places where the Action Plan seems to contradict UK policy
Meet the new UN tax committee
The list is out, together with a provisional agenda. The BRICS minus Russia all have people on the committee (remember they do not represent their countries in an official capacity), although with some changes in personnel. The UK’s Andrew Dawson returns. Some of the key personalities behind the committee’s work this past session – previous… Continue reading Meet the new UN tax committee
Base Erosion and Profit Shifting? It takes one to know one
Last week I was at a research workshop for PhD students at the International Bureau for Fiscal Documentation in Amsterdam. It was very interesting to be in the Netherlands in a rather introspective week about the country’s tax treaties. The Netherlands is quite sensitive about the accusation that it’s a tax haven, as I found… Continue reading Base Erosion and Profit Shifting? It takes one to know one
The government adopted tax campaigners’ rhetoric at the G8, but much of the status quo is still intact
Here’s my post on the LSE Politics & Public Policy blog. The Enough Food for Everyone If campaign – successor to Make Poverty History – has succeeded in making tax haven secrecy the centrepiece issue of public debate around the G8 summit, which closed yesterday in Eniskillen. It also chalked up a genuine success, in… Continue reading The government adopted tax campaigners’ rhetoric at the G8, but much of the status quo is still intact
Martin Hearson 