Tag: OECD

From theory to practice: development finance institutions and Global Forum peer reviews

There are two big ‘policy coherence’ issues when it comes to taxation and the way that development assistance works. The first is the way donors often demand tax exemptions for aid-funded projects. If you think about how aid can be quite a large share of GDP in some low-income countries, these are large sums at… Continue reading From theory to practice: development finance institutions and Global Forum peer reviews

‘Spillover analysis’ as a frame of reference for tax and development policy

Last year, when Parliament’s International Development Committee was conducting an inquiry into tax and development, ActionAid (where I worked) was calling on the government to assess the impact of changes to the UK’s Controlled Foreign Companies (CFC) rules on developing countries. At the time, we were citing a report from the IMF, World Bank, OECD… Continue reading ‘Spillover analysis’ as a frame of reference for tax and development policy

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

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?