Every time Labour leadership candidate, Lisa Nandy has been asked for her view on the Gender Recognition Act and gender self ID in the last few weeks she tells a story about a young person in her constituency . Here are a couple of versions of that story “I have a young person who is […]

I spoke at the excellent Woman’s Place UK conference  at University College London on 1 Febuary 2020  — in the opening plenary with Pragna Patel of Southall Black Sisters and Joanna Cherry QC MP, Chaired by Professor Sophie Scott. Wow! This is going to be an  be an amazing conference. I am overwhelmed to be […]

I spoke at the Women’s Place UK meeting in London on May 20th, as a last minute stand in alongside Julie Bindel, Selina Todd and Meghan Murphy. It was a brilliant night. Helen Lewis wrote in the New Statesman: “The packed hall felt like the birth, or rebirth, of something. A feminism unafraid to talk […]

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa report on Fiscal Policy for Financing Sustainable Development is a serious piece of work.  But it contains the latest in a long series of silly numbers which inflate perceptions of the scale of revenue at stake from multinational corporate tax avoidance. It says tackling  base erosion and profit shifting by […]

[Revised version – thanks to Lucia Cizmaziova for pointing that I had mistyped the ICIJ data for the UK and Denmark – my spreadsheet is here] Three years ago the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed that 11.5 million documents had been leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Recently they toted up the […]

In response to joint statement on trans-solidarity on behalf of feminists for fiscal justice, tax and economic policies. Dear Kate, Chiara, David, Liz, Fariya, Caroline, Neelanaja, Yamini, Ana, and Roosje We all agree that no one should have their right to liberty, security or life violated by violence. People should not face discrimination in access to healthcare, work or housing because of the […]

Arve Ofstad was the Norwegian Ambassador to Zambia from 2011 to 2016. He has written an article titled “Misleading Numbers on Capital Flight” in the business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv about the often repeated myth of billion dollar illicit financial flows from Zambia through mispricing of copper exports.  Here is my (Google assisted) translation of his article.

Following the series of stories emerging from the ‘Paradise Papers’ has been like unpacking a Christmas stocking. While each individual item may be underwhelming in itself, the overall effect is designed to be thrilling. The ICIJ say that the parade of cases that they have profiled are ones that ‘expose significant failures and weaknesses inside […]

Action 13 of Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), calls for multinational groups with revenues over 750 million Euros, to produce a ‘country by country report’ (CBCR) detailing their profits earned and taxes paid, in each country of operation. The aims is for revenue authorities to use this information as a risk […]

Reprinted with permission from Tax Journal. (PDF version)  Reckitt Benckiser (RB), maker of household products from condoms to stain removers, is the latest company to come under fire for tax avoidance. Oxfam published a report on 13 July, saying the company has been ‘making tax vanish’ by shifting profits to its regional hubs in the […]