The Taxpayers’ Alliance may finally have over-reached themselves. They have just launched a cinema advert claiming the EU costs each UK citizen £2,000 per year. As Left Foot Forward show, the actual figure is £15 per year according to the EU Budget. That’s not a typo: the TPA [...]
A commentator on this blog has said, initially quoting me, and overall in response to comment by Dave Hartnett:
“Tax compliance is seeking to pay the right amount of tax (but no more) in the right place at the right time where right means that the economic substance of [...]
Christian Aid today launches its latest Alternative Tax Award – Tax Superhero of the Year – and invites nominations of suitably qualified firms and individuals.
The award has been introduced to highlight the tremendous potential accountants have to change the world for the better by helping developing countries collect more of [...]
Trusts, NGOs under ambit of money-laundering law .
India is to extend its money laundering laws:
Charitable trusts, whether temples, churches or mosques, non-government organisations (NGOs), educational institutions or societies, if registered as non-profit organisations (NPOs), will not only have to disclose the source of their funds, but also be scrutinised for [...]
Did we really hoodwink them? - Isle of Man Today .
From today’s editorial:
Once again the tax black hole is dominating the news. Lord Bach, the government minister who’s responsible for the Crown Dependencies, has been in the Island.Our reporter, John Turner, interviewed him.
Lord Bach was very complimentary about the way [...]
Hartnett whips up a storm at the ICAEW - Accountancy Age.
The permanent secretary for tax and commissioner of HM Revenue & Customs has never been afraid of ruffling a few feathers and Dave Hartnett did not disappoint at a recent address to some of the UK’s most eminent tax [...]
The man responsible for the Isle of Man at the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice has confirmed the VAT arrangement was changed because the Island gained too much from the previous deal.
Under the re-drawn revenue sharing rules, the Manx government will lose almost £100 million from [...]
That was the mildly provocative title of the talk I gave last night to the annual joint meeting of the London branch of the Chartered Institute of Tax and the Association for Revenue & Customs. Other speakers were Chris Davidson, head of the Large Business Service at HMRC [...]
James Moore: Lets tackle bank secrecy – everywhere - Business Comment, Business - The Independent.
The spotlight that is now (belatedly) shining down on UBS is showing up some very ugly things. It now appears that the vast majority of the thousands of wealthy people whose account details are to [...]
A commentator on this blog has said:
[T]here is very little Christian theology on the merits, purposes and morality of taxes. There are certainly many mentions in the new Testament of tax collectors/publicans who were widely despised as agents of a foreign state, and ranked alongside “sinners”, which many interpret [...]
A commentator on my blog concerning Rowan Williams discussion of tax said:
Interesting that the Archbishop referred to the Greek origins of the word “economics” to proclaim the virtues of “housekeeping”. Presumably the C of E is now officially Thatcherite.
Not at all. You see Rowan Williams talked about what economics [...]
A picturesque bridge over the River Thames that has the added perk of being a tax haven has gone on public viewing ahead of going up for auction.
The Swinford [...]
The Tax Justice Network has blogged the continuing abuse of information exchange by Switzerland.
Carl Levin has said:
While it is good to know that 14,700 people have now disclosed previously hidden offshore bank accounts, the U.S.–Swiss Annex disclosed today, designed to compel disclosure of the names of U.S persons [...]
Dave Hartnet: The Chancellor’s tax enforcer who just hates to lose - Telegraph.
Hartnett says:
I think our top priority right now is the work we are doing to end tax secrecy, particularly in tax havens
He’s right.
[...]There’s a new report out on the secrecyjurisdictions.com web site. It’s entitled Key Data Report 2: Financial Services-to-GDP-ratio
The report looks at the contribution of the financial services sector to the overall economy of each secrecy jurisdiction surveyed. As we note:
A high share of financial services in the overall [...]
Birmingham assure fans that Carson Yeung is not just a ‘front man’ and remains in charge - Telegraph.
Despite calls for greater transparency over the ownership of football clubs, it has emerged that unidentifiable investors could now have a controlling interest in Birmingham City, after a hefty percentage of the [...]
Rowan Williams had this to say on tax in his speech to the TUC yesterday:
[T]he point is that we should be thinking about taxation neither as an unreasonable burden on enterprise nor as a simple mechanism of redistribution but as a potentially sophisticated tool for long-term ‘economy’ – housekeeping. [...]
Earlier this year, the Campaign against Climate Change (CaCC) trade union group set up a commission to produce a detailed plan for a million ‘climate’ jobs.
The commission includes academics and environmental groups as well as several unions including PCS.
In November 2009 the CaCC trade union group published a pamphlet, One [...]
Again, having problems embedding the video - but this is Ann pettifor and me in action at the TUC.
Mine isn’t that easy to follow - I spoke to [...]
There’s a fascinating new report come out of SOAS. Its Centre for Development Policy and Research has published the report under the title "Why Has Domestic Revenue Stagnated in Low-Income Countries?” The summary says:
There has been miserably slow progress in increasing domestic revenue in low-income countries since the 1990s. [...]
Lloyds facing £54m tax bill after HBOS ruling | Business | guardian.co.uk .
Lloyds Banking Group, which is 43% state-owned, has failed in its latest attempt to avoid a £54m tax bill.
In a new ruling last month, the judge, Howard Nowlan, disagreed with HBOS’s argument that the scheme was [...]
Britain faces “revenue crisis” not a spending crisis | Left Foot Forward.
Looks like I got blogged on what I said at the TUC this morning:
Tax expert Richard Murphy has told an audience at the TUC that Britain faces a “revenue crisis” and an “unemployment crisis” but not a spending [...]
Gillian Tett at the TUC:
Building an economy around Canary Wharf was nuts
and
Over the last few years the financial sector built a candy floss ec9onomny – finance resold products time and again to each other until a great big pink candy floss was built – all sugary and terribly sweet – [...]
So is Rowan Williams – Archbishop of Canterbury.
He says the Greek for economics is ‘housekeeping – and it is about creating a habitat for how we live. He calls that a habitat – a sustainable.
Peealing to the market as an independent authority unconnected [...]
World Vision have sent me a briefing on a new campaign they are launching. I guess a blog has reached critical mass when such things
happen.
They say this World Vision aims to cut child deaths by two thirds in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals. and note:
· [...]
The Guardian has noted:
The controversial tax on financial transactions endorsed by Gordon Brown and Lord Turner, the top City regulator, was last night beginning to garner the support of leading financiers for the first time.
The idea of a Tobin-like tax was embraced by outspoken City figure Terry Smith as [...]
Alistair Darling should levy a £5bn "empty property tax" on up to a million homes left vacant by absentee landlords, to help meet the costs of the financial crisis, trades unions will argue tomorrow.
The TUC wants the chancellor to charge five times the usual council tax [...]
Trade unions want the East Coast franchise back in public hands permanently.
So do I.
The franchise experiment has failed.
Rail has to be run for the public good as a not for profit enterprise - which [...]
The following has been issued by Christian Aid, Global Witness and tear Fund and is too important not to note:
Doha: A handful of countries are responsible for the failure of a crucial meeting to agree to an effective mechanism that would give a global anti-corruption treaty real power, said Christian [...]
Liberal Conspiracy » Revealed: How Tory staffers are astro-turfing leftwing blogs.
Astro-turfing is people being paid to comment on blogs.
And it seems the Tories are doing it.
I am pretty sure some who comment here do the same for secrecy jurisdictions.
That’s the sort of abuse those protecting wealth creates.
[...]Liberal Conspiracy » Cameron’s speech fails the poverty fact-check.
Liberal Conspiracy shows that Cameron relied on some very dodgy facts to blame the government for an increase in poverty - which has not happened.
[...]A flaw in the TUC masterplan | Tim Worstall | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk .
Worstall makes a fool of himself in the Guardian on the proposal by the TUC for a bank transaction tax in the UK. As I noted in response:
Worstall seeks to make a point and fails to do so
First, [...]
It was reported only days ago that my comments on the Politics Show about the Isle of Mn and its VAT arrangements were to be the subject of questions in the Tynwald (Manx Parliament).
Now the order paper has been published and it would seem the focus has changed. [...]
GUEST POST: Stewart Lansley is the author of ‘Rich Britain’ and two pamphlets in the TUC ToUChstone series: ‘Do the Super-Rich Matter?‘ and ‘Life in the Middle‘. His latest book, written with Mark Hollingsworth, is ‘Londongrad: From Russia With Cash‘, the story of how the London-based oligarchs [...]
Don’t let a backlash knock out Tobin tax | John Hilary | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk .
Gordon Brown’s statement of support for a tax on global financial transactions is a welcome call on the banks to repay [...]
A comment on my recent blog on comments on this blog was so good I had to a) let it through moderation and b) re-publish it here:
I think that this is eminently sensible and I wish such a policy was applied more widely. The ‘comments’ attached to so many [...]
A sure sign of the Tories attitude to Cayman and other tax havens is revealed in news from Cayman yesterday:
A Conservative government would immediately rebuild the UK’s relationship with the Cayman Islands and Britain’s other overseas territories. This was the welcome news conveyed to Cayman Islands Premier McKeeva Bush [...]
I tried to write about Cameron’s appalling Hugo Young lecture yesterday, and failed. That as partly due to work pressure. Partly because I was just so angry at what he said.
Madeleine Bunting has said it better anyway this morning, and I’m quoting at above average length because it [...]
More good news in Hines report » Business » This Is Guernsey.
It’s been reported by the Guernsey press that:
A report acknowledging the contribution of offshore centres is yet more good news for the island, says GuernseyFinance chief executive Peter Niven.
This is the STEP report on which I [...]
The Mapping the Faultlines project that has given rise to the secrecyjurisdictions.com web site does what it says on the tin: it seeks to map the fault lines that flow through the world’s financial architecture that allows illicit financial flows of at least $1 trillion a year to [...]
I mentioned last week I was reviewing comment policy on this blog.
I have done so. Please see the new policy, which is here.
I just reviewed a batch of comments. 80% failed the new tests. They were deleted.
Think of it like writing to a newspaper: no paper guarantees to [...]
The Tax Justice Network has produced a great interactive map of where the world’s secrecy jurisdictions are.
It’s available here.
Thanks to Statplanet in helping produce this. They had to add places to their maps they didn’t really think existed!
[...]The first stage of the TUC’s submission on the Pre-Budget report has been released. As they note:
The Chancellor should introduce a 0.05 per cent transaction tax on instant transfers between UK financial institutions so that the finance sector makes a major contribution to repairing the damage done to public [...]
BBC - Today - Mutiny in the Caribbean .
According to the report people in Turks & Caicos can’t decide if direct rule is a good thing or not:
Aubrey Butterfield Junior, Chair of the Providenciales Chamber of Commerce, was one of those who publicly advocated for Britain to introduce direct rule.
“If [...]
From today’s Jersey Evening Post:
We note your editorial ‘Harder work for the critics’ (JEP, 5 November). We suspect you would include us among the ‘critics of Jersey’, although that is not true; we are critics of the offshore financial services industry wherever it is to be found. The recently [...]
A global index of 60 tax havens has ranked Malta in 22nd place, claiming the island is “a long way from offering financial transparency”.
According to the Tax Justice Network’s study, Malta is awarded an 83% ‘opacity’ score (with 100 being the maximum opacity for the most [...]
Alex Brummer of the Daily Mail has written a good article on transaction taxes (just to prove don’t always pick on this paper), saying:
No one should consider the transactions tax on the banks dead and buried, despite the scorn poured on Gordon Brown’s brief appearance at the G20 summit.
What [...]
I am speaking at the following meeting on 25 November:
The source of my comment is here. We need this revenue here in the UK, now.
[...]International negotiators will meet this week in Qatar in an attempt to finalise the world’s first and only international corruption convention, in the face of ongoing acrimony over the roles pressure groups should be allowed to play if the treaty comes into effect.
Signed in 2005, the [...]
