Theatre of Absurd Tax Avoidance

Welcome to the land of hidden billions, where anyone looking for more than a mailbox gets an absurd theater

The intercom in this Luxembourg City office park crackles a bit as a spokesman for the German energy giant Eon takes a breath. He’s in a really bad mood after being asked just a few questions about the company’s billion-dollar transactions that shifted profits out of Germany. He says he can’t say anything on the topic, and refuses to allow anyone inside the office.

“Forget it,” he says, “there’s no way you’re coming up.”

“No way.”

Then—just silence. Until he asks, “What do you want?”

When your nose has been stuck in tax documents for weeks, a couple questions come to mind.

The secret documents which make up the Luxembourg Leaks hint at the fact that there might not be much behind these corporations’ offices in Luxembourg other than a mailbox

Day in fiscal-paradise chasing letterbox leads to -Luxembourg

• Preventing tax evasion and fraud: the scope for automatic exchange of information is extended: Council of the European Union  (9 Dec 2014)
  
• Some quotes of the week: don’t sign OECD tax treaties  (9 Dec 2014)
  
• Luxembourg tax files: how Juncker's duchy accommodated Skype and the Koch empire  (9 Dec 2014)
• New Leak Reveals Luxembourg Tax Deals for Disney, Koch Brothers empire  (9 Dec 2014)
• Secret tax deals worth billions brokered by EY, Deloitte, KPMG  (9 Dec 2014)
• Day in a Fiscal Paradise: Chasing Letterbox Leads in Luxembourg  (9 Dec 2014)
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• PwC sold 'tax avoidance on industrial scale'  (9 Dec 2014)
• PwC denies 'mass marketing' tax avoidance schemes  (9 Dec 2014)
• Time for the EU to tackle Luxembourg over tax  (9 Dec 2014)
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers chief Kevin Nicholson denies lying over tax deals  (9 Dec 2014)
• US Accuses Deutsche Bank of Skirting Millions in Back Taxes  (9 Dec 2014)
• Deutsche Bank Sued by U.S. Over Alleged Tax Scheme  (9 Dec 2014)
• Inequality 'significantly' curbs economic growth - OECD  (9 Dec 2014)
• Australia: Joe Hockey announces profit-shifting tax audit of 10 multinationals  (9 Dec 2014)
• Australia to crack down on corporate tax avoidance  (9 Dec 2014)
• Australia poised to impose 'Google tax'  (9 Dec 2014)
• How much is Canada losing to overseas tax evasion?  (9 Dec 2014)
• EU Council would be smart to embrace outsiders that can keep an eye out for irregularities in beneficial ownership information (9 Dec 2014)
• Israel tax evasion probe leads to 28 arrests  (9 Dec 2014)

“Our support to the launching of pilot mechanisms is set in the wider framework of calling for the implementation of a real international taxation system. We do not consider pilot mechanisms as mere innovative tools to fund development but as an embryo for global redistribution mechanisms.”
GATCA

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