The Taxcast

In this extended special episode of the Taxcast, we look at the 'Desai Papers' - the story you probably never heard of: it goes back decades and looks at a key player in the making of tax haven Mauritius that's been hurting Indians and Africans ever since. We speak with a whistleblower and the journalist who broke the story. Is the Indian government investigating? What does the story tell us about the global economy? Transcript available here (some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-Taxcast-Transcript-Jan-2023.pdf  Our website is https:///www.thetaxcast.com 

There's been a shift in global power, a tax justice milestone, and the powerful nations couldn't stop it... In this episode, Naomi Fowler gives you a fly-on-the-wall take on what happened at the United Nations on November 24th 2022. We look at the power plays around a fundamental global power shift - the beginning of the end of the OECD’s 60 year reign as the world’s leading rule-maker on global tax. Featuring: Alex Cobham of the Tax Justice Network Rachel Etter-Phoya of the Tax Justice Network The UN Chairperson, UN Secretary and UN representatives of Nigeria, South Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Liechtenstein, Republic of Korea, and Eritrea.  Produced and hosted by the Tax Justice Network's Naomi Fowler. Transcript (some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/The-Taxcast_Transcript_Dec_22.pdf WATCH this historic UN meeting here (starts about 20 minutes in): https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1b/k1bummpe5z  Further reading: https://taxjustice.net/2022/11/22/%f0%9f%94%b4-live-blog-un-vote-on-new-tax-leadership-role/ https://taxjustice.net/2022/12/15/un-resolution-for-an-intergovernmental-tax-framework-what-does-it-mean-and-whats-next/ https://taxjustice.net/press/un-adopts-historic-decision-to-take-on-new-tax-leadership/ https://taxjustice.net/press/un-secretary-general-signals-support-for-un-tax-convention/  Our podcast website is https://www.thetaxcast.com   

In this episode, Taxcast host Naomi Fowler discusses sovereignty, the 'boomerang effect' and the relevance of the 'Third World Movement' today to our global economic system, with Dr Kojo Koram, author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. "Decolonisation, from the 1950s and 1970s, was quite simply the greatest multiplication of democratic power that the world has ever seen" Plus, we look at two big failures this month: the collapse of crypto exchange company FTX (secrecy jurisdictions, enablers, investigations...) the Tax Justice Network writes an open letter to alert the G20 to the failings of the OECD as global tax rule-setter, as they miss another deadline. A transcript of the podcast is available here: (Some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Taxcast-transcript-Nov-22-1.pdf "The kind of loss of feeling of control in the United Kingdom, that loss of feeling of sovereignty, that loss of feeling of democratic accountability is connected to the erosion of sovereignty and erosion of democratic accountability that was allowed to happen to the former colonies of particularly the British Empire but all empires. What happens in the colonies doesn't simply stay there, but it comes back on the homeland and it starts to impact how its economy, its society, and its politics operates. And I think that's a lot of what we see in Britain right up until today.” Featuring: Dr Kojo Koram of Birkbeck, University of London and author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. Alex Cobham, Tax Justice Network Professor Nouriel Roubini speaking in the UAE Taxcast host and producer, Naomi Fowler, Tax Justice Network Further reading: Kojo Koram's book Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire is published by John Murray Press: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/uncommon-wealth-britain-and-the-aftermath-of-empire/9781529338621  Governments can recover billions from tax havens by publishing withheld transparency data https://taxjustice.net/press/governments-can-recover-billions-from-tax-havens-by-publishing-withheld-transparency-data/  UN Secretary General signals support for UN tax convention: https://taxjustice.net/press/un-secretary-general-signals-support-for-un-tax-convention/  Tax Justice Network's Open letter to G20 on OECD failure to deliver on G20 mandates https://taxjustice.net/2022/11/15/open-letter-to-g20-oecd-failure-to-deliver-on-g20-mandates/ Why Didn't the Government Stop the Crypto Scam? by Matt Stoller: https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/why-didnt-the-government-stop-the  The World Series of Crypto Rackets, by Judd Legum: https://t.co/wEh4TihGYz Seven politicians are returning FTX's tainted money — others are keeping quiet, by Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby: https://popular.info/p/seven-politicians-are-returning-ftxs  WATCH ~ BOOMERANG: Empire and Britain's economy (featuring Kojo Koram): https://youtu.be/kmOK4tNc31A 

In this episode: Nelson Mandela famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Yet millions of children in the world still don’t even get to walk through the school door. This month on the Taxcast host Naomi Fowler looks at education and tax justice. The challenges, and the ways forward. Plus, we explore two important developments which really pushes forward steps towards a UN Tax Convention: the economic commission for Africa, the declaration of their finance ministers calling for the UN to begin negotiations on the convention (that's more than a quarter of the member countries of the United Nations) plus the head of the United Nations has pledged his support for negotiations. How will wealthier nations, who are too often the world's worst offenders for draining tax revenue from other nations, now respond? Transcript: (some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/The-Taxcast_Oct_22_Transcript.pdf  For more information and more Taxcasts, go to https://www.thetaxcast.com 

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