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International Business Taxation - the textbook, now finally available online
The Tax Justice Network is pleased to announce that the seminal book International Business Taxation by Professor Sol Picciotto, is now available for free on the web, with kind permission from Cambridge University Press. First published in 1992, it contains a wealth of historical information and analysis about how the international tax system evolved.
International Business Taxation
A Study in the Internationalization
of Business Regulation
Download the book for free, here.
TJN is proud to republish, for the first time in electronic form, this book by Sol Picciotto, first published in 1992. This is by kind permission of Cambridge University Press, which now owns the rights.
Gibraltar: the captured state
From The Guardian, via Tax Research, a description of the financial sector in Gibraltar:
"The GFIA brochure boasts that Gibraltar’s “seamless communication between industry, regulator and government have allowed it to develop into arguably the premier experienced fund regime in Europe and certainly the regime with the greatest flexibility and fastest time to market”. Hassans’ links with government go back to 1964 when Sir Joshua Hassan was appointed chief minister. He served until 1969, before being re-elected for a second term between 1972 and 1987. Hassan was the founder of Hassans law firm and is Lasry’s uncle.
Links Jun 4
Insight-A Singapore wealth manager under fire amid crackdown Reuters
More fallout from the ICIJ Offshore Leaks
States want to revoke bank licenses TJN Germany Blog (In German)
Gibraltar tries to lure London hedge fund bosses with promise of low taxes The Guardian
See also: Is Gibraltar the perfect example of capture of the state by finance? Tax Research UK
"The Swiss have understood that the lines have moved" Le Temps (In French)
Links May 31
Leading transparency campaigners welcome UN development report Global Witness
Australia Publishes Tax Transparency Legislation Tax-News
See also: World's big companies must be made to pay fair share of tax Sydney Morning Herald and Top firms' tax haven links revealed Sydney Morning Herald
Another nail in the coffin of tax secrecy Financial Times
Big economies are turning the tide against havens, though only up to a point
Lee Sheppard: Don't sign OECD model tax treaties!
Update: June 3. We now know that Sheppard wrote an article for Tax Analysts entitled How Can Vulnerable Countries Cope With Tax Avoidance? (p410) It covers the issues below more thoroughly, and contains much that is interesting and not covered in the blog below.
We have just come across this video of a presentation in Norway by Lee Sheppard, contributing editor at Tax Notes International, and one of the U.S.' best known tax experts. Provided by Publish What You Pay Norway, it is fascinating, and in this blog we have transcribed a chunk of her speech, explaining why the OECD has caused so much damage in the arena of international tax.
She introduces her talk, promisingly, like this:
Links May 30
Africa’s riches could ‘dwarf international assistance’: NGO EurActiv
Illicit financial flows have made Africa 'a net creditor to the world' The Guardian
Semeta Says Some EU Nations Make It Too Easy To Avoid Tax Bloomberg
Swiss want their banks to break the law and reveal US tax evaders—for now Quartz
See also commentary blogged earlier
Rwanda: Make Tax Evasion a Risky Venture allAfrica
Two superb articles on Google, Apple and tax
Philip Stephens in the Financial Times 'gets it' on Google and its boss Eric Schmidt, who has said he is proud of his company's slippery, gymnastic tax-dodging ways, and is 'perplexed' that anyone should question it. Lee Sheppard, writing in Forbes, gets it too - laying out Apple's tax strategies in more detail. First, Sheppard, summarising:
"Apple’s brand halo is slipping. Silicon Valley’s well-known vanity and contempt for government are amply displayed in Apple’s tax figures. Apple, a consumer products company that sells beautifully designed gadgets, pays very little tax anywhere in the world, including the United States.
Apple AAPL +0.8% is playing fast and loose with consumers’ affection for its highly discretionary products, especially in Europe. It is ill-advised for any consumer products company not to pay tax where it sells products. Equally important, Apple’s tax avoidance is also testing the patience of strapped European governments that are looking for ways to get American multinationals to pay tax.
. . .
Announcing the Financial Transparency Coalition
TJN is excited to bring you news of the launch of the Financial Transparency Coalition, overtaking the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development. Porter McConnell, the manager of the FTC, writes:
Announcing The Financial Transparency Coalition
By Porter McConnell
When the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development was created in 2009, only a handful of experts were following the issue of illicit financial flows. The subject was decipherable only to finance professionals taking advantage of tax havens, and a handful of civil society groups and finance journalists. Meanwhile, each year nearly a trillion dollars was being secreted out of developing countries, robbing them of revenue needed to build better lives for their citizens.
Quote of the day: Apple's taxes
From Lee Sheppard, a top U.S. tax expert:
The [Irish] holding company pays no tax to any government, and has not paid tax for five years. It claims tax residence nowhere.Even for a jaded tax lawyer used to hokey schemes to avoid taxation, Apple’s arrangements were surprising. Our quote of the day is the bit in bold. The article is excellent.
Top income shares vs. top marginal tax rates
From an important new paper on the NBER website by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Anthony Atkinson and Facundo Alvaredo, a rather striking graph (via Business Insider):
The authors identify four key drivers of the massive increase in income of the top 1 percent: