The Taxcast

In this episode, Taxcast host and producer Naomi Fowler explores tax as a tool for racial justice and the launch of a new report by Decolonising Economics. "There's a real opportunity for mobilising towards transformative policies that'll work not just for racialised communities in the UK but for everyone feeling the pains of this economic system" ~ Guppi Bola, Decolonising Economics, author of the report "Tax as a Tool for Racial Justice". Transcript of the show: https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-Taxcast.-Sept-2022-Transcript.pdf Links to past Taxcasts on reparational and tax justice, plus a video of the launch of new report: Tax as a Tool for Racial Justice and other useful resources available here: https://taxjustice.net/2022/09/19/tax-as-a-tool-for-racial-justice-new-report-launched/

In this episode Taxcast host Naomi Fowler investigates the phenomenon of pop-up sweet shops on Oxford Street and the missing millions in taxes owed. The trail leads to the disgrace that is the UK's company registration process, making the UK Crime Central for any crook who comes along. It's not just the UK that exposes its citizens to risks, it hurts people across the world too. Transcript of the show is available here: https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/The-Taxcast-Transcript-July-2022.pdf Taxcast website with more Taxcasts: https://www.thetaxcast.com "It is ridiculous that you have to take more identification to get a library card to borrow a book than you do to create a limited liability company, which potentially is a cost to the taxpayer if you go bust, it is bonkers and it should stop" Graham Barrow of The Dark Money Files podcast. "I came across a situation where for tax avoidance reasons, thousands of companies were being set up at the same time, with the same individual as the director. And in some cases there was 2000 companies being set up in the same day with the same individual as a director, and it wasn't raising any flag. You hear it all the time, you know, 'oh well, we'll learn the lessons,' but we never really seem to learn the lessons. The next scandal is a variation on a theme of the previous scandal." ~ former tax inspector Ray McCann "How did the UK end up at the centre of so many crimes? It's incredibly easy - go online, go onto the Companies House website - that's our company registry - pay 12 pounds and you too can have a shell company. I registered one myself - it took me less than 24 hours to receive the deeds showing I owned the company. I called it Crooked Crook Crook which I thought was pretty funny, but it turned out that actually I was being fairly unimaginative by the standards of international criminals." ~ journalist and anti-corruption campaigner, Oliver Bullough Further reading and information here: BBC coverage of pop-up sweet shops on Oxford Street https://youtu.be/yXeXw91_H0k Time to Return Integrity to the UK Corporate Registry. Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies video featuring Oliver Bullough https://youtu.be/LHTmRPtMXs8 The Dark Money Files podcast https://t.co/ktKHci06dK German company registration process (for the purposes of comparison) https://www.lawyersgermany.com/company-registration-in-germany

Annual shareholder's meetings used to be pretty staid and boring affairs. But, as inequality has boomed along with corporate profits, AGMs are becoming sites of protest. In this episode Naomi Fowler speaks to Katie Hepworth of PIRC and Jason Ward of CICTAR about the recent challenge to Amazon on tax transparency from shareholders. How did the challenge unfold and what was the result? What does it tell us about progress on principles that as societies are increasingly important to us? A transcript available here (some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/The-Taxcast-transcript_June_22.pdf Our website with more podcasts is here: https://www.thetaxcast.com/ Further reading: https://www.statista.com/statistics/272258/percentage-of-shareholders-in-the-total-population-of-selected-countries/ https://www.businessinsider.com/no-the-average-stock-holding-period-is-not-11-seconds-2010-10?r=US&IR=T The Taxcast in 2014 covering Google's annual shareholder meeting tax transparency challenge: https://youtu.be/lFSfWvdedt4?t=1226 Amazon's Tribulations And The Future Of Tax Transparency, Nana Ama Sarfo https://www.forbes.com/sites/taxnotes/2022/05/31/amazons-tribulations-and-the-future-of-tax-transparency/ https://www.globalreporting.org/

Which nations are the world's biggest financial secrecy offenders? And what does it tell us about the world, about politics and about democracy? How high does your country rank in facilitating global corruption? In this episode Taxcast host Naomi Fowler explores the shocking results of the Tax Justice Network's Financial Secrecy Index 2022. Guests: Alex Cobham, head of the Tax Justice Network Ryan Gurule, of the FACT Coalition Read all about the Financial Secrecy Index here: https://fsi.taxjustice.net/ Our website with more podcasts is here: https://www.thetaxcast.com/

On the Taxcast we ask - do politicians believe in the societies they serve or not? Are they really a part of them, or do they live in a parallel world with different rules to ordinary people? The so-called 'NonDom' scandal goes all the way to Downing Street, the heart of the British government and the UK Chancellor/Finance Minister whose wife is taking advantage of an archaic tax status that leads to reduced taxes on her inherited fortune - just as her husband raises taxes on everyone else. In this episode Taxcast host Naomi Fowler explores the results of revealing new work on the data with economist Arun Advani of Warwick University: and co-author of a new report "The UK's 'non-doms': Who are they, what do they do, and where do they live?' Economist John Christensen speaks on the breaking of the social contract and the need for a new set of governing principles to re-establish fairness for all regardless of wealth in all nations. Transcript of the podcast (some is automated) Further reading and listening: Report: The UK's 'non-doms': Who are they, what do they do, and where do they live? https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/bn36.2022.pdf Taxcast interview with journalist and anti-corruption campaigner in Pakistan, Umar Cheema, on his inspirational achievement in making Pakistan only the fourth country in the world to publish the tax returns of its Parliamentarians https://taxjustice.net/2015/05/22/the-tax-justice-network-podcast-may-2015/ The Wealth Tax Commission: https://www.ukwealth.tax/the-team Tax Legislation in the UK Benefits the Interests of the Rich: https://leftfootforward.org/2022/04/prof-prem-sikka-tax-legislation-in-the-uk-benefits-the-interests-of-the-rich/

In this episode of the Taxcast, Naomi Fowler speaks with journalist and anti-corruption campaigner Oliver Bullough about his new book 'Butler to the World: how Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals.' "You cannot have unquestioning acceptance of the wealthy AND democracy. You can't treat everyone the same before the law AND give rich people anything they want, because rich people want to have immunity from the law. Do you want democracy, or do you want to be a Butler?" With Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, even the most hardcore 'let the planet burn' believers can no longer deny that fossil fuel dependency is a national and an international security issue. We know the resource curse goes hand in hand with corruption. Is this a time like no other for the world to finally see that the key to it all is financial secrecy? Transcript of the show: https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-Taxcast-March-22-Transcript.pdf Link to Oliver Bullough's book 'Butler to the World: how Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals.' https://uk.bookshop.org/books/butler-to-the-world-how-britain-became-the-servant-of-tycoons-tax-dodgers-kleptocrats-and-criminals-9781800812734/9781800812734 Further reading: Why has no progress been made on an international financial registry? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/16/russia-rich-wealthy-western-elites-thomas-piketty The 'Wild West' of Scottish Limited Partnerships, covered on the Taxcast: https://taxjustice.net/2016/01/22/the-january-2016-tax-justice-network-podcast/ The resource curse and the finance curse, hand in hand with 'Butler Britain' (and other tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions.) Includes the Taxcast interview with Daria Kaleniuk of Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Action Centre: https://taxjustice.net/2022/03/03/ukraine-russia-the-finance-curse-and-the-resource-curse-goes-hand-in-hand-with-financial-secrecy/ 10 measures to expose sanctioned Russian oligarchs' hidden assets: https://taxjustice.net/press/10-measures-to-expose-sanctioned-russian-oligarchs-hidden-assets/ Our website: https://www.thetaxcast.com

In this episode we bring you the story of a pensioner robbed of his dream retirement and his fight for justice in multiple jurisidctions. Tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions don't just hurt us because they're places of impunity for the rich and for criminals. Quite ordinary people can get caught up in them too. And when thngs go bad, it becomes clear how toxic these places are, and that you may not get the help from regulators and law enforcement that you really need. Plus, we share the news of a great loss to Malawi and to the world of tax official Mr Alinafe Bonongwe, who was taken from us for doing his job bravely and in the public interest. You can read more about him here: https://taxjustice.net/2022/02/17/in-honour-of-a-tax-collector-taken-from-us-in-the-line-of-duty/ May he rest in peace. Here's the transcript of the show: https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Taxcast_Feb_22_TRANSCRIPT.pdf And here's our website with more Taxcasts: https:///www.thetaxcast.com

In the first Taxcast for 2022, Naomi Fowler talks with tax justice and anti-corruption campaigners and experts in Europe, Africa, the US and Latin America. What are our hopes and fears for 2022? And what should we be looking out for? The transcript of the show is available here: https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/The-Taxcast-Jan-22-Transcript.pdf Further information: Paper questioning the legal validity of the IMF's Stand-By Arrangement with Argentina by Kariina Patricio Ferreira Lima: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4004595 The Tax Justice Network's monthly podcast for French-speaking Africans is available here: https://www.thetaxcast.com/?lang=fr A previous Taxcast which includes more information on Kenya's Financial Transaction Tax https://taxjustice.net/2020/12/17/taxing-wall-street-the-tax-justice-network-december-2020-podcast/ The 'cowboy cocktail' in Wyoming story from the ICIJ Our website with more Taxcasts and information is here: https://www.thetaxcast.com

In edition 117 we take you to the tax haven of Jersey off the coast of France and the intruiging story of the discovery of 333 boxes of incriminating evidence of fraud. Those boxes have revealed some ugly truths about this small island tax haven that affect us all. The transcript is available here (some is automated and may not be 100% accurate): https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-Taxcast_transcript_edition-117.pdf You can hear the Taxcast edition on rising inequality and dysfunction in Jersey here: https://taxjustice.net/2019/04/26/inequality-and-dysfunction-in-the-tax-haven-of-jersey-a-taxcast-special-edition/ You can also read more about this story on the following links: https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1qwpnk6j1zv70/The-Heiress-the-Queen-and-the-Trillion-Dollar-Tax-Shelter https://eic.network/blog/huge-new-tax-haven-leak-reveals-specialist-money-laundering-company https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2020-10-05/lost-trust-leaked-files-expose-jerseys-inaction-on-fraud-scandal

In this episode: Ireland only has 0.1% of the world's population, but they became one of the biggest tax havens on the planet. What's that meant for Irish people, and their road ahead? Naomi Fowler speaks with authors of a new book Tax Haven Ireland. There's a special deal for Taxcast listeners for the paperback or the ebook version, wherever you are in the world. Go to the publisher's website, PLuto Books: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745345314/tax-haven-ireland/ and enter the code TAX40. Also: we discuss the latest Tax Justice Network's annual State of Tax Justice report. You can check out how your country threatens others, and/or how it suffers at the hands of other offender nations here: https://taxjustice.net/reports/the-state-of-tax-justice-2021/ Transcript of the show: https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/TaxcastTranscript_Nov_21.pdf You can read more about the finance curse here: https://taxjustice.net/topics/the-finance-curse/ The true costs of the City of London (How the City of London is making us poorer) https://taxjustice.net/2018/10/05/how-the-city-of-london-makes-us-all-poorer-infographic/ The true costs of the US finance sector is available here: Overcharged: The High Cost of High Finance https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/overcharged-the-high-cost-of-high-finance/