Development Finance & Tax Justice - Archive

TJN’s 2013 Financial Secrecy Index exposes yawning gap between G20 rhetoric and reality

Today the Tax Justice Network launches its 2013 Financial Secrecy Index, the biggest ever survey of global financial secrecy. This unique index combines a secrecy score with a weighting to create a ranking of the countries that most actively and aggressively promote secrecy in global finance.

This new edition of the Financial Secrecy Index shows that the United Kingdom is the most important global player in the [...]

The United Nations' Sixth High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development (FfD) that took place in New York in early October shows a deep rift between developing and developed countries. This dialogue was mandated to look at the FfD Agenda's status of implementation and the tasks ahead. While the EU thinks it contributed at least its fair share, developing countries pointed to the major failures in implementation of aid, debt or trade commitments. The future of the FfD process remains unclear [...]

The Working Group on "Financing for sustainable development" of the socalled UN System Task Team (UNTT) has issued four background papers for the Intergovernmental Expert Committee on Sustainable Development Financing and its deliberations surrounding the post-2015 UN development agenda. Paper #1 reviews investment requirement estimates that have been published over the last decade for nine sectors; paper #2 takes stock of national, regional and international public sources for sustainable development finance; paper #3 examines the challenges in raising private sector [...]

Briones2011Prof. Leonor Magtolis-Briones from Social Watch Philippines gives three reasons why the Philippines 2014 national budget is prone to misuse. Social Watch Philippines analyses the government’s annual spending budgets and releases alternative budgets through its Alternative Budget Initiative to influence the national budgets to become more supportive in creating a sustainable environment and more equitable society for the Philippines. The following is an edited version of a piece originally entitled Speaking for Myself: The 2014 National Budget, Special Purpose Funds [...]

In a feature South-African organization L4BB deals with the subject of growing anger at corporate tax dodging. Adrienne Margolis poses the question: How can commercial lawyers respond to demands for tax justice? In order to improve revenue raising from multinationals operating in developing countries, L4BB demands a legal aprroach that sidesteps technical distinctions between legitimate tax planning, tax avoidance and tax evasion and focuses instead on a more widely defined notion of 'tax abuse'

ANND has issued a statement on World Bank loans in response to the Syrian refugee crisis. As almost 2 million Syrians have been displaced in neighbouring countries, the World Bank has started to issue loans, such as a $150 million loan to support Jordan. However as Jordan (and also Lebanon) are heavily indebted civil society groups are asking for grants to be issued in place of loans to allow the affected countries an opportunity to recover.

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is currently reviewing the rules to report donors’ loans as Official Development Assistance (ODA). This discussion is taking place against a backdrop of aid cuts across Europe and raises concerns about the intentions of DAC donors. There are risks that the poor will be short-changed if the new rules make it easier for donors to inflate their aid figures further without making fresh money available and that debt sustainability will be undermined if loans [...]

The Human Rights Institut of the International Bar Association (IBAHRI) launched a new report adressing tax abuse from the perspective of human rights law and policies. The report, compilated by an expert task force, offers new insights into the links between tax abuses, poverty and human rights. This report analyses the responsibilities and remedies to counter tax abuse and delivers specific recommendations for states, businesses and the legal profession.

At the level of the European Union a new anti-money laundering directive is currently under way. German NGO World Economy, Ecology and Developmet (WEED) has recently taken up the issue in a factsheet and focusses on the situation in Germany specifically. Contrary to popular perception, Germany is a popular destination for money laundering activities. Being a liquid market with high cash flow makes the country attractive while also complicating the monitoring of financial flows. Its central location between Eastern and [...]

"When the delegations arrive in Washington next week for the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, they will face a situation that the citizens of IMF programme countries know all too well: The public sector has shut down due to a debt crisis and the policy response that followed. Let’s see if this helps to make the governors of the international financial architecture’s most powerful institution learn some lessons and make the right decisions," writes [...]

Oxfam has recently published a report alarming the public of the consequences of the austerity measures used to equalize the EU economies after the debt crises. The mechanisms used, have increased the risk of poverty in Europe as people are increasingly burdened by the taxes being enforced on them. Oxfam has released four recommendations that governments must implement to create a fairer society.

The long litigation odyssey between the government of Argentina and holdout creditors continues. Debt justice campaigners in Argentina and the USA are enraged about a new ruling by the New York appeals court in favour of the vulture funds NML Capital Ltd and Aurelius Capital, which sued for full payment of US$1.3 billion of holdout debt. The New York court upheld the previous ruling that Argentina must repay the vulture funds every time it repays the creditors that participated in [...]

Campaigners of 34 organizations such as Christian Aid, ActionAid International, Oxfam, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, Tax Justice Network have endorsed a briefing on the fight against tax dodging. In their statement from 31st August they forcefully warn the members of G20 countries' summit meeting in St. Petersburg on 5th and 6th September to declare reforms on the global tax system and make transnational corporations pay their fair share. Moreover the campaigners present concrete reform steps but insist on [...]

In an article for Financial Transparency Coalition, a transparency watchdog, economist Ann Hollingshead describes the relationship between income inequality, wealth and illicit financial flows in the context of Asian economic development. In Asia, a strong export sector and high overall growth rates have led to the creation of a large number of extremely wealthy individuals. In turn, these have attracted banks, which play a role in moving money out of these countries. This has adverse consequences for Asian states' ability [...]

Economic Crises as Gender Unequal

The 2008-09 crisis led to greater job loss and poverty among women than men. US national unemployment was 10 per cent by September 2010, but in several US counties it was as high as 20 per cent.[1] Although manufacturing jobs that are typically “male” such as in automobiles were the first to be hit during the crisis, layoffs in teaching, nursing, the public sector, etc, meant that women's jobs were not growing as fast [...]

The European Commission’s recent accountability report and communication on financing for development highlights the importance of domestic resource mobilisation, tackling illicit financial flows and meeting aid promises. But it contains no substantive new commitments, ducks issues of wider systemic reform and adopts an alarmingly one-sided endorsement of stepping up the use of public money to leverage private finance. These are the conclusions of an article written by Jesse Griffiths, Øygunn Sundsbø Brynildsen, Jeroen Kwakkenbos, María José Romero and Bodo Ellmers [...]

Alliance Sud, a coalition of Swiss development NGOs, criticizes industrialized countries for not living up to the promises made at the Cancún climate conference in 2010. While rich countries had pledged additional funding to support developing countries, they have resorted to cosmetic tactics instead. Thus, Alliance Sud points out that Switzerland is trying to declare private financing as public contributions. Yet, more innovative public finance mechanisms would be needed instead. This process could endanger a global climate change agreement.

On July 19, 2013, the OECD published a long awaited socalled Action Plan with recommendations to tackle corporate tax avoidance. Tax Justice Network, an international expert network working on issues around tax evasion and avoidance, reacted to this Action Plan with their own take on what needs to be done about transnational corporations paying little or no taxes in countries where they operate.

In our series of papers coming out of the international conference „Tax Justice – Human Rights – Future Justice” in Berlin on the 27th November 2012, we are happy to present the latest edition on „Environmantal tax reform in countries of the South“. The paper ist he ninth in our series of Policy briefs „Info Steuergerechtigkeit“ on issues of tax justice, published in cooperation with the Tax Justice Network Germany.

Fiscal policy – and hence also tax policy – is one of the most important steering instruments of governments. The true priorities of policies are often revealed more clearly by budgets and tax legislation than they are by declarations and action programmes. Also, a government’s fiscal policy reflects the political influence of certain interest groups. Are defence budgets or social welfare budgets being raised? Who enjoys tax reliefs, and how are they compensated for? Answers to these questions are crucial [...]

In numerous countries, the exploitation of mineral and fossil natural resources is resulting in violations of human rights, rising poverty and violence. Many partner organisations of “Brot für die Welt” and MISEREOR are campaigning for the people affected. They are urging that those concerned actually benefit from the exploitation of natural resources in their countries, that they can realise their human rights, that the environment is not destroyed, and, above all, that they are comprehensively informed about plans, projects and [...]

To decrease their dependency on rich countries and achieve long-term development, poor countries must raise revenue domestically. In this paper, author Jens Martens looks at a range of different obstacles that prevent governments of poor countries from raising sufficient public revenue and spending it on development. For example, governments of rich countries pressure poor countries to liberalize trade, thus reducing customs revenues. Also, ineffective tax systems exempt transnational corporations, landowners and rich individuals from paying taxes to poor countries. ( [...]

The year 2005, it is to be hoped, will be a decisive year for thorough reform of the United Nations. The High-Level (heads of state and government) Plenary Meeting of the 60th Session of the UN General Assembly (Millennium +5 Summit) is due to meet in the middle of September 2005 to discuss the future institutional and sectoral development of the UN. On the agenda are the new challenges of global security, poverty eradication, the implementation of human rights, gender [...]

After more than two years of work, the United Nations Millennium Project published its final report, "Investing in Development," in January 2005. This Global Policy Forum and Friedrich Ebert Foundation briefing paper provides a more accessible analytical summary on the massive report and places it in a political context.