Tag: Zambia

Certainty in the tax treaty regime

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

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

Tax treaties in sub-Saharan Africa: a critical review

The report I authored for Tax Justice Network-Africa is now available. It’s based on field research done a year ago and has been a little while getting into print. Here’s a link to read it online at academia.edu Here’s a link to download the PDF And here’s the introduction: There is growing attention on the… Continue reading Tax treaties in sub-Saharan Africa: a critical review

The Mopani saga and Zambia’s windfall tax: an alternative reading

In 2010, Zambian NGOs obtained a leaked copy of an audit report conducted for the Zambia Revenue Authority into Mopani Copper Mine, a subsidiary of the Swiss behemoth Glencore. I was working at ActionAid at the time, where we took an active interest in the case. The particular allegation concerning systematic transfer pricing abuse contained… Continue reading The Mopani saga and Zambia’s windfall tax: an alternative reading

Time we scrutinised China’s tax treaty practice, too

On Monday the UK parliament took a total of 17 minutes to scrutinise new tax treaties with Zambia, Iceland, Germany, Japan and Belgium. I’ve complained before about how paltry these debates tend to be, and was all set for another blog along those lines. There was, indeed, much to grumble about. No questions from the… Continue reading Time we scrutinised China’s tax treaty practice, too