Narrative Report on Singapore
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Engagement Guidance on Corporate Tax Responsibility Why and How to Engage with Your Investee Companies
ENGAGEMENT GUIDANCE ON CORPORATE TAX RESPONSIBILITY WHY AND HOW TO ENGAGE WITH YOUR INVESTEE COMPANIES An investor initiative in partnership with UNEP Finance Initiative and UN Global Compact THE SIX PRINCIPLES We will incorporate ESG issues into investment analysis and 1 decision-making processes. We will be active owners and incorporate ESG issues into our 2 ownership policies and practices. We will seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by 3 the entities in which we invest. We will promote acceptance and implementation of the Principles 4 within the investment industry. We will work together to enhance our effectiveness in 5 implementing the Principles. We will each report on our activities and progress towards 6 implementing the Principles. CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Authors: Athanasia Karananou and Anastasia Guha, PRI Editor: Mark Kolmar, PRI Design: Alessandro Boaretto, PRI The PRI is grateful to the investor taskforce on corporate tax responsibility for their contributions to the guidance: ■ Harriet Parker, Investment Analyst, Alliance Trust Investments ■ Steven Bryce, Investment Analyst, Arisaig Partners (Asia) Pte Ltd ■ Francois Meloche, Extra Financial Risks Manager, Bâtirente ■ Adam Kanzer, Managing Director, Domini Social Investments LLC ■ Pauline Lejay, SRI Officer, ERAFP ■ Meryam Omi, Head of Sustainability, Legal & General Investment Management ■ Robert Wilson, Research Analyst, MFS Investment Management ■ Michelle de Cordova, Director, Corporate Engagement & Public Policy, NEI Investments ■ Rosa van den Beemt, ESG Analyst, NEI Investments ■ Kate Elliot, Ethical Researcher, Rathbone Brothers Plc ■ Matthias Müller, Senior SI Analyst, RobecoSAM ■ Rosl Veltmeijer, Head of Research, Triodos Investment Management We would like to warmly thank Sol Picciotto, Emeritus Professor, Lancaster University and Coordinator, BEPS Monitoring Group, and Katherine Ng, PRI, for their contribution to the guidance. -
Narrative Report on Ireland
Financial Secrecy Index Ireland Narrative Report on Ireland Ireland is ranked at 47th position on the 2013 Financial Secrecy Index. This ranking is based on a combination of its Chart 1 - How Secretive? Moderately secrecy score and a scale weighting based on its share of the secretive 31-40 global market for offshore financial services. 41-50 Ireland has been assessed with 37 secrecy points out of a 51-60 potential 100, which places it into the moderately secretive 61-70 category at the bottom of the secrecy scale (see chart 1). 71-80 Ireland accounts for over 2 per cent of the global market for 81-90 offshore financial services, making it a small player compared with other secrecy jurisdictions (see chart 2). Exceptionally secretive 91-100 Part 1: Telling the story1 Chart 2 - How Big? Ireland as a financial centre: history and background Overview huge Ireland’s role as a secrecy jurisdiction or tax haven is based on two broad developments. The first, dating from 1956, is a regime of low tax rates and tax loopholes that have large encouraged transnational businesses to relocate – often small only on paper – to Ireland. The second is the role of the tiny Dublin-based International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), a Wild-West, deregulated financial zone set up in 1987 under the corrupt Irish politician Charles Haughey, which has striven particularly to host international ‘shadow banking’ activity2. Ireland’s secrecy score of 37 makes it one of the least secretive jurisdictions on our index: secrecy was never a central part of its ‘offshore’ offering. -
Global Regulation of Tax Havens
JUNE 2015 MICHAEL TYRALA USA AND ITS CHANGING GLOBAL REGULATION ROLE IN THE OF TAX HAVENS REGULATION OF THE OFFSHORE ECONOMY CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG PRESENTATION OUTLINE . A) Tax Havens and their systemic connection . B) Struggles over the enforcement of the US tax system . C) Concluding takeaways and implications A) 1. THE RISE OF TAX HAVENS . Some of the oldest legislative acts trace back to 1869 (Monaco), 1875 (New Jersey), 1898 (Delaware), 1926 (Liechtenstein), 1929 (Luxembourg), and 1934 (Switzerland) . Modern day proliferation is tied to three phenomena: 1) Globalization and the advances in transportation and communication technologies 2) Decolonization in the 1960s (new countries looking for niches in the global market) 3) A 1957 Bank of England ruling, which decreed “that transactions undertaken by UK banks on behalf of a lender and borrower who themselves were not located in the UK were not to be officially viewed as having taken place in the UK for regulatory purposes even though the transaction was only ever recorded as taking place in London” - such transactions thus became effectively unregulated or ‘offshore’. This was likely an unintended consequence of trying to cope with increasing financial complexity, but led to the undermining of the Bretton Woods system. A) 2. CLASS CAMPAIGN . 1947 – Mont Pelerin Society – Hayek & Friedman commence their battle of ideas ultimately leading to the rise of neoliberalism . Enormous sums of money marshaled for the neoliberal/libertarian cause, paid for by: . leading Fortune 500 companies (GM, Chrysler, Ford, Gulf Oil, Standard Oil, Sun Oil, US Steel, National Steel, Republic Steel, Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field, Sears, Monsanto, DuPont, General Electric, Merrill Lynch, Eli Lilly, BF Goodrich, ConEd, …) . -
8 May 2018 Tax Justice Network Response to the Questionnaire of The
8 May 2018 Tax Justice Network response to the questionnaire of the European Parliament Special Committee on Tax Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance ("TAX3"), in advance of the hearing on "The fight against harmful tax practices within the European Union and abroad", scheduled for 15 May 2018: Why the TJN FSI lists 41 jurisdictions and the EU lists 9 jurisdictions at the moment? What differences in methodology do you notice? Could you explain the criteria used for the construction of the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI)? How could FSI be used for the implementation of anti-tax avoidance and even anti-money laundering rules in the EU and in the rest of the world? * The Tax Justice Network welcomes the opportunity to provide evidence to the European Parliament Special Committee on Tax Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance ("TAX3"), and the energy which is now dedicated to addressing the major issues of international tax abuse which have been revealed by the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, LuxLeaks and in a range of other investigative work and by our own research. For example, using a methodology developed by researchers at the International Monetary Fund, we estimate that global revenue losses to the profit shifting of multinational companies is in the order of $500 billion a year – and disproportionately felt by lower-income countries where those revenues are most badly needed. At the same time, EU member states are included among the biggest losers – and also among the most aggressive in seeking to disadvantage their neighbours. A similar pattern holds in respect of offshore tax evasion. -
1 the Tax Justice Network's Written Submission in Support of the Visit By
The Tax Justice Network’s written submission in support of the visit by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 5 to 16 November 2018. About the Tax Justice Network The Tax Justice Network (TJN) is an independent international network dedicated to high-level research, analysis and advocacy in the area of international tax and financial regulation, including the role of tax havens. TJN maps, analyses and explains the harmful impacts of tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax competition; and supports the engagement of citizens, civil society organisations and policymakers with the aim of a more just tax system. Above all, we see our role as weather-changers: we pursue systemic changes that address the international inequality in the distribution of taxing rights between countries; the national inequalities – including gender inequalities – that arise from poor tax policies; and the national and international obstacles to progressive national tax policies and to effective financial regulation. Summary Since the late 1970s there has been a policy trend in the United Kingdom and elsewhere towards lower rates of both personal and corporate income tax. This has accelerated in many countries including the UK since the global financial crash of 2007/8, above all with respect to corporate tax. Our contribution to the forthcoming examination by the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty on the impact of austerity policies on poverty focuses on the context in which low taxation and the continued ‘tax gap’ in the United Kingdom plays a part in the rationale to limit public spending and to create additional hardship for the poor or for those for whom this fiscal approach generates a significant risk of falling into poverty. -
Interview with Yves Bouvier
arts Editorial y Interview with Yves Bouvier John Zarobell Department of International Studies, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA; [email protected] Responses translated from the French by John Zarobell with support from Samuel Weeks. Thanks are due to y Alexandra Dubourg for her invaluable assistance and to Johanna Grawunder. Received: 19 August 2020; Accepted: 13 September 2020; Published: 21 September 2020 1. Introduction Yves Charles Edgar Bouvier is a founder and/or shareholder of the following firms: Expositions Natural le Coultre SA (Geneva), Fine Art Transports Natural le Coultre SA (Geneva), Le Freeport Management Pte Ltd (Singapore), The Singapore Freeport Real Estate Pte Ltd, The Luxembourg Freeport Management Company SA, The Luxembourg Freeport Real Estate SA, and Art Culture Studio SA (Geneva). He is a recipient of the Order of Merit from the Ministry of Culture of the Federation of Russia and serves as Governor of the Board of the National Cultural Heritage of Russia, and has previously served as a Board Member of ARIF (2000–2003), a self-regulatory organization approved by the financial market supervision authority (FINMA) to enforce anti-money laundering legislation. John Zarobell, Associate Professor of International Studies at the University of San Francisco, author of Art and the Global Economy. Knowing that this Special Issue of Arts on the Contemporary Art Market would include a series of articles on freeports, I requested an interview with Yves Bouvier, the man who has been central to the development of this business model, and an art dealer for more than thirty years. While I had originally hoped to visit Luxembourg and to speak with M. -
Freeports and the Hidden Value of Art
The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center International Studies Faculty Publications International Studies 11-12-2020 Freeports and the Hidden Value of Art John Zarobell Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/international_fac Part of the International and Area Studies Commons arts Article Freeports and the Hidden Value of Art John Zarobell Department of International Studies, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA; [email protected] Received: 25 August 2020; Accepted: 12 November 2020; Published: 18 November 2020 Abstract: At first glance, the global art trade—currently valued around $60 billion—is a miniscule piece of global economic production. But due to the unregulated nature of the art market, it serves a key function within the larger network of the accumulation and distribution of capital worldwide. This deregulated market intersects with the offshore domain in freeports, an archipelago of tax-free storage facilities that stretch from Singapore to Geneva to Delaware. The burgeoning of freeports globally suggests that speculation has become a more prominent pattern of art investment, but it also demonstrates that tax avoidance is a goal of such speculators and the result is that more art works are being taken out of circulation and deposited in vaults beyond the view of regulatory authorities. Despite its size, the art trade can demonstrate broader trends in international finance and, by examining offshore art storage that occurs in freeports, it will be possible to locate some of the hidden mechanisms that allow the global art market to flourish on the margins of the economy as well as to perceive a shift in which the economic value of art works predominates over their cultural value. -
The West African Giveaway: Use & Abuse of Corporate Tax Incentives in ECOWAS
The West African Giveaway: Use & Abuse of Corporate Tax Incentives in ECOWAS July 2015 1 About ActionAid ActionAid International (AAI) is a non-partisan, non-religious development organization. ActionAid seeks to facilitate processes that eradicate poverty and ensure social justice through anti-poverty projects, local institutional capability building and public policy influencing. The organisation is primarily concerned with the promotion and defence of economic, social, cultural, civil and political human rights and supports projects and programmes that promote the interests of poor and marginalized people. ActionAid International Postnet Suite 248 Private bag X31 Saxonwold 2132 Johannesburg, South Africa www.actionaid.org About TJN-A Tax Justice Network-Africa (TJN-A) is a Pan-African initiative established in 2007 and a member of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice. It is a network of 29 members in 16 African countries. Through its Nairobi Secretariat, TJN-A collaborates closely with these member organizations in tax justice activities at the national and regional level. TJN-A seeks to promote socially just and progressive taxation systems in Africa, advocating for pro-poor tax policies and the strengthening of tax systems to promote domestic resource mobilization. Tax Justice Network-Africa. Chania 2rd Floor, George Padmore Ridge George Padmore Road off Marcus Garvey, PO Box 25112, Nairobi 00100, Kenya Telephone: +254 20 247 3373 [email protected] www.taxjusticeafrica.net Acknowledgements: This publication was produced jointly by ActionAid International and Tax Justice Network-Africa. We extend our appreciation to the following individuals for their contributions towards the production of this report: Chukumwa Agu, David Onyinyechi Agu, Kate Carroll, Mark Curtis, Martin Hojsik, Nora Honkaniemi, Luckystar Miyandazi, Nduka Okolo-Obasi, Ruwadzano Matsika, Alvin Mosioma, Saviour Mwambwa and Soren Ambrose. -
FACT Sheet: Tax Haven Abuse by the Numbers X $100 Billion: the Amount That the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Estimated in 2008 That the U.S
FACT Sheet: Tax Haven Abuse by the Numbers x $100 billion: The amount that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations estimated in 2008 that the U.S. lost in tax revenue due to offshore tax abuse every year1 x $1 trillion: the amount of unrepatriated foreign profits sitting offshore2 x $810 billion: The average outflow of illicit money from developing countries per year between 2000-2008 as estimated by Global Financial Integrity3 x 18,857: The number of registered businesses at one address in the Cayman Islands4 x 217,000: The number of companies housed at 1209 Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware5 x 759: Number of offshore subsidiaries in tax havens for Citigroup, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley combined6 x 83: number of the 100 largest U.S. companies that use offshore tax havens - including the big banks taxpayers bailed out in 2008 7 x $57.2 billion – Amount of money Egypt lost to trade mispricing and other forms of commercial crime between 2000 and 20088 x $2: Daily earnings for at least one third of Egyptians9 x 30%: Corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts in the mid 1950s10 x 6.6%: Corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts in 200911 x 64%: Publicly traded U.S. parent companies incorporated in Delaware12 x 51%: Publicly traded U.S. subsidiaries incorporated in Delaware13 x 6.2%: Next highest percentage of subsidiaries incorporated in any other state14 1 Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. TAX HAVEN BANKS AND U. S. TAX COMPLIANCE STAFF REPORT http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2008/071708PSIReport.pdf This $100 billion estimate is derived from studies conducted by a variety of tax experts. -
Migrants and Refugees: a EU Perspective on Upholding Human Rights Through Taxation and Public Finance
Saint Louis University Law Journal Volume 62 Number 1 The Sanford E. Sarasohn Conference on Critical Issues in Comparative and Article 3 International Taxation II: Taxation and Migration (Fall 2017) 2017 Migrants and Refugees: A EU Perspective on Upholding Human Rights Through Taxation and Public Finance Cristina Trenta [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Cristina Trenta, Migrants and Refugees: A EU Perspective on Upholding Human Rights Through Taxation and Public Finance, 62 St. Louis U. L.J. (2017). Available at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol62/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Saint Louis University Law Journal by an authorized editor of Scholarship Commons. For more information, please contact Susie Lee. SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES: A EU PERSPECTIVE ON UPHOLDING HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGH TAXATION AND PUBLIC FINANCE CRISTINA TRENTA* INTRODUCTION The European Union (“EU”) proclaimed the year 2015 as the year for development.1 The EU is working hard to enhance development within Europe and within developing countries.2 Development is currently one of the focus areas at the European and at the international level.3 In the EU Joint Declaration on Consensus on Development, the EU Parliament lists a series of areas of law that affect development.4 Immigration law is an important topic to tackle within development,5 together with the provision of sustainable solutions for refugees.6 The EU strives to make “migration a positive factor for development.”7 The EU * Cristina Trenta, Dr., Dr., Docent, Associate Professor, Tax law, Örebro University (Sweden). -
The$Price$Of$Offshore
# THE$PRICE$OF$OFFSHORE$REVISITED*$ # NEW#ESTIMATES#FOR#MISSING#GLOBAL#PRIVATE### WEALTH,#INCOME,#INEQUALITY,#AND#LOST#TAXES# # # At#dinner#they#did#dIscourse#very#fInely#to#us#of#the#probabilIty## that#there#Is#a#vast%deal%of%money#hid#In#the#land.# $ SS##Samuel#Pepys,##Diary#(1663)# # Dye%mon,%gen%mon% SS#HaItian#proverb # Theres%something%out%there%.%.%.%and%its%GROWING!% SS#RIpley# # # James$S.$Henry$ # Senior#AdvIsor/#Global#Board#Member# # Tax#JustIce#Network# # July#2012# # # # # *# Thanks# to# James# Boyce,# John# ChrIstensen,# Alex# Cobham,# RIchard# Murphy,# Ronan# Palan,# Sol#PIccIotto,# and#Nicholas# Shaxson#for# their# constructive# feedback.# Thanks# are# also#due#to#the#World#Bank,#the#IMF,#the#BIS,#and#the#UN#for#much#of#the#basIc#data# analyzed#In#this#report.##$ ©#James#S.#Henry,#TJN#2012# # 1 $ $ TABLE$OF$CONTENTS$ # The$Price$of$Offshore$Revisited$$$ # # # $ 1.$INTRODUCTION/$SUMMARY$AND$KEY$FINDINGS$ $ 2.$WHERE$IS$OFFSHORE,$ANYWAY?$$ $ 3.$THE$GLOBAL$HAVEN$INDUSTRY$ $ 4.$OLD$ESTIMATES$ $ 5.$NEW$ESTIMATES$$ $ 6.$TRADE$MISPRICING$$AN$ASIDE$ $ 7$.$IMPLICATIONS$ $ # # # # APPENDIX$I:$THE$PREVHISTORY$OF$$OFFSHORE$ESTIMATES$ $ APPENDIX$II:$$EXPLAINING$CAPITAL$FLIGHT$ $ APPENDIX$III:$KEY$CHARTS$ # # # # # ©#James#S.#Henry,#TJN#2012# # 2 # 1.$INTRODUCTION/$SUMMARY$$ # The#defInitIon#of#vIctory#for#this#paper#Is#to#revIew#and#Improve#upon#exIstIng#estImates# of##the#sIze,#growth#and#distrIbutIon#of#untaxed#prIvate#wealth#protected#and#servIced#by# the#global#offshore#Industry.## # This# Is# necessarIly# an# exercise# In# night# -
Stellungnahme Des Netzwerks Für Steuergerechtigkeit (Tax Justice
Nicola Liebert, Tax Justice Network Mitglied im europäischen Lenkungsausschuss www.taxjustice.net Berlin, d. 2.7.2010 Stellungnahme des Netzwerks für Steuergerechtigkeit (Tax Justice Network) zur öffentlichen Anhörung des Finanzausschusses des Deutschen Bundestags zur Frage der Bekämpfung der Steuerhin- terziehung am 7. Juli 2010 1. Die beinahe leeren Schwarzen und Grauen Listen der OECD Im April 2009 veröffentlichte die OECD auf Aufforderung der G20 hin eine neue Schwarze, eine Graue und eine Weiße Liste überwachter Staaten und Gebiete. Auf der Schwarzen Lis- te fanden sich zur Überraschung selbst von Kennern der Materie lediglich vier Staaten – Costa Rica, Malaysia, die Philippinen und Uruguay – und das auch nur fünf Tage lang. Dann teilte OECD-Generalsekretär Angel Gurría mit, dass sich alle vier Staaten künftig an den OECD-Standard über den Informationsaustausch mit den Steuerbehörden anderer Länder halten wollten, was ausreichte, um von der Schwarzen Liste genommen zu werden. Auch die Graue Liste derer, die den OECD-Standard akzeptiert, aber noch nicht in ausrei- chender Form umgesetzt haben, wird immer kürzer. Sie umfasste am 23.6.2010 noch 14 Länder, darunter Costa Rica, die Philippinen und Uruguay, die von der ursprünglichen schwarzen Liste aufgestiegen waren, sowie im globalen Maßstab unbedeutende Steueroa- sen wie Montserrat, Nauru, Niue und Vanuatu. Um auf der Weißen Liste geführt zu werden, ist der Abschluss von nur zwölf bilateralen Informationsaustauschabkommen hinreichend. Zu den Ländern, mit denen so zum Beispiel Liechtenstein Abkommen geschlossen hat, gehören neben Deutschland und Großbritannien auch Andorra und Monaco. Insgesamt hat die Zahl der Abkommen zwischen Staaten der Grauen Liste sprunghaft zugenommen, was nichts anderes bedeutet, als dass sich die Steueroasen gegenseitig den Status als „kooperative“ Staaten bzw.