The Taxcast
The persecution of anyone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant in the United States is not only taking the form of armed, masked ICE agents. Tax is being weaponised against them too. An estimated 10.9 million undocumented immigrants are the powerhouse of the United States economy, and also an exploitable workforce with minimal rights. It turns out that they're paying a higher effective tax rate than 55 mega-corporations and several billionaires: There's something very wrong with our tax system, that people with that much wealth could be paying a lower tax rate than undocumented...
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Millionaires are not fleeing countries to escape taxes. The Tax Justice Network has analysed these claims and found it's questionable data published by a firm that helps the super-rich buy their way out of rules that apply to everybody else. In fact, things are changing for people in the business of helping to sell passports and residency. Some doors are closing... Plus, we look at the latest results from the Financial Secrecy Index - what are the latest global trends and have you heard of an anocracy?! Transcript of the show: Further reading: Millionaire exodus did not occur, study reveals,...
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The life-changing, life-saving, transformational nature of tax - for people and planet. Ireland's got a tax windfall of about €14 billion - that's roughly $15 billion. What are they going to do with it..? "This is the kind of moment that doesn't come around often and we really need to seize it. Or if we let the opportunity slip through our fingers, it's going to have impacts for future generations." ~ Mansi Rawat, Social Justice Ireland We don't do enough about blue sky thinking on how tax can transform our lives. This is our chance to unlock our imaginations. It's also time for...
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The Taxcast looks at the battle for freedom of the press in Switzerland and the implications for the rest of the world. Investigative journalists like Bastian Obermayer risks arrest, fines and imprisonment if he sets foot in Switzerland again, and Swiss journalists are having to turn away strong public interest stories - for fear of not just rich and powerful people coming after them, but also the Swiss state. Switzerland's always been famous for its banking secrecy laws and it's never been the friendliest place for investigative journalists. Now the situation threatens to get even worse....
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How easy is it to get filthy rich selling arms to anyone who'll pay? There may be sanctions, there may be laws, but even though he's the FBI's most wanted fugitive, a Chinese arms dealer and manufacturer has evaded arrest for two decades. Who could be better to investigate one of the world’s most dangerous men and tell this story than Panama Papers journalists? Taxcast host Naomi Fowler speaks to Frederik Obermaier about the book The Chinese Phantom: the Hunt for the World's most Dangerous Arms Dealer. What does it tell us about sanctions and financial secrecy at a time of rising autocracy...
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Listen to the Taxcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can subscribe by email and get lots of resources and further reading on our website here: The Tax Justice Network has monthly podcasts in different languages focused on different regions of the world, all available here Also available there is our series The Corruption Diaries; a journey through the eyes of anti-corruption veterans, with unique perspectives on combating some of the most compelling ethical challenges of our time.
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The rollercoaster story of the battle in the US (the world's biggest global financial secrecy offender) over the implementation of a beneficial ownership register, the attempts to stop it and the (many) lessons learned from the UK's registers. The US's Corporate Transparency Act seemed to be on track. Until it wasn't... "Everything is bigger in Texas, that's what they like to say! And as we've learned, even court orders are bigger in Texas." Meanwhile, we take a look at UK company registration progress, since the days when "you could just set up a company for 12 pounds and say you were Mickey...
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We look at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism story about a Syrian kleptocrat and alleged war criminal, and the British Crown Dependency of Guernsey. It throws up all kinds of questions about policing compliance, enforcement and the need for public beneficial ownership registers, with good quality information. Also, on day one of his presidency, Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the OECD's global minimum tax deal. So what now? We'll talk to the Tax Justice Network's Alex Cobham. Featuring: at The , Ed Siddons Guernsey-based investigative and podcast , Rob Byrne Alex...
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A world where someone pays $6.2 million for a banana duct-taped to a wall is a world that needs wealth taxes. But when wealth taxes are considered by politicians and governments, unsubstantiated spin and myth making dominates the debate. (If you can call it a debate). We look at the Tax Justice Network's modest wealth tax proposal which could help governments increase their national budgets by 7 percent a year, a potential global revenue of more than 2 trillion US dollars annually. And we discuss what research really says about so-called 'tax flight' by the very wealthy because of tax reforms....
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What are the implications of Donald Trump's election victory for tax justice and the anti-corruption fight in the US and globally? We see a moment of clarity... Host talks to of the based in Europe and of the in Washington, US. We also have two very good pieces of news: one is the latest vote at the UN as countries vote overwhelmingly to take negotiations on the UN Tax Convention to the next step, leaving the blocker nations in a tiny minority. And the second piece of good news is that despite huge lobbying to try to stop them, Australian politicians have shown how politicians really can...
info_outlineWe're experiencing the hottest global temperatures ever recorded. For millions of us, the climate crisis is already hitting hard. And we need to know, we must know - WHO are the beneficial owners of the climate crisis? It's surprisingly difficult to find out...
Featuring:
Franziska Mager, Senior Researcher and Advocacy Lead (Climate & Inequalities), Tax Justice Network
Dario Kenner, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Sussex and author of the book Carbon Inequality
Victor Galaz of the Stockholm Resilience Centre
Peter Ringstad of Tax Justice Norway
Andres Knobel, Lead Researcher (Beneficial Ownership), Tax Justice Network
George Monbiot, Environmental campaigner and journalist
Kenya's President William Ruto
Hosted and produced by Naomi Fowler of the Tax Justice Network
Transcript of the show (some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Transcript_Taxcast_July_23.pdf
All the Taxcasts are available here where you can also subscribe: https://www.thetaxcast.com
Further reading:
Beneficial ownership and fossil fuels: lifting the lid on who benefits: https://taxjustice.net/2023/06/30/beneficial-ownership-and-fossil-fuels-lifting-the-lid-on-who-benefits/
Delivering climate justice using the principles of tax justice: a guide for climate justice advocates https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Policy-brief-climate-justice_2206.pdf
Carbon Majors Report: https://cdn.cdp.net/cdp-production/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf
Links to Dario Kenner's work: The Polluter Elite Database: https://whygreeneconomy.org/the-polluter-elite-database/
Carbon Inequality: the role of the richest in climate change https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/carbon-inequality-the-role-of-the-richest-in-climate-change-dario-kenner/2920056?ean=9780367727666
Lobbying and other tactics of big oil companies to delay the transition away from fossil fuels https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102049
Why we need to look at how global oil and gas industry lobbies G20 governments and how this is slowing progress https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/11/16/oil-gas-avoided-censure-glasgow-26th-time-lets-not-make-27/
Post-war reconstruction involved taxing the richest: https://theconversation.com/post-war-reconstruction-involved-taxing-richest-it-could-be-a-model-for-building-a-low-carbon-economy-137717
White knights, or horsemen of the apocalypse? Prospects for Big Oil to align emissions with a 1.5 °C pathway https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629621001420
Carbon Billionaires, Oxfam report: https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/carbon-billionaires-the-investment-emissions-of-the-worlds-richest-people-621446/
Cereal crops decimated by Europe's heatwave https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/sourcing/cereal-crops-decimated-by-europes-heatwave/681361.article
"I thought fossil fuel firms could change. I was wrong" https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/7/6/i-thought-fossil-fuel-firms-could-change-i-was-wrong
Stockholm Resilience Centre, the hidden environmental consequences of tax havens https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2018-08-13-the-hidden-environmental-consequences-of-tax-havens.html
New study raises red flags on tax haven role in environmental destruction https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2018/08/new-study-raises-red-flags-on-tax-haven-role-in-environmental-destruction/
New data exposes the links between tax havens, deforestation and illegal fishing https://www.su.se/english/archive-news/research-news-archive/new-data-exposes-the-links-between-tax-havens-deforestation-and-illegal-fishing-1.396018