Tax evasion and closing loopholes

You can have a Lord, you can have a King, but the man to fear is the tax collector.
— Anonymous citizen of Lagash, a city-state that existed approximately 6,000 years ago in what is now Iraq

““If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.”

 - Proverb

Consultants doing core public service work 'deeply problematic'
IPAA PANEL: It’s very worrying that core public sector work is being outsourced to consultants, says Victorian Public Sector Commissioner Paul Grimes.

CEOs should have been the fall guys; why are they still heroes? Aeon

What Is Harvard Trying to Hide? Politico

Prop. C on SF ballot would tap biggest businesses to raise millions for homeless San Francisco Chronicle

Are we too broke to stick to our principles? BBC

How a Gang of Hedge Funders Strip-Mined Kentucky’s Public Pensions The Intercept

Miscarrying at Work: The Physical Toll of Pregnancy Discrimination NYT

It’s time to tax wealth properly

Bloomberg Tax, G-20 Eyes Tax Gold Mine in ‘Sexy’ Crypto Market:

Tax authorities across the world, dazzled by potential revenue, have taken notice of the cryptocurrency market—despite its many booms and busts.

For tax authorities, the cryptocurrency market could be a rich source of revenue that has gone largely untapped—the market once soared in value to about $800 billion. But in their quest for cash, tax authorities have had to create new definitions and regulatory approaches. ...

The incestuous world of tax and how it may give birth to conflicts of interest

Attorney Fraud Resulting in Tax Court Decision; Can It Be Corrected? How?

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This article caught my attention today:  Bruce Vielmetti, Former Foley & Lardner partner suspended for falsifying documents in IRS audit...

The European Union, tax evasion and closing loopholes: new report

October 15, 2018 by Naomi Fowler Leave a Comment

Today, a new report commissioned by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament and written by the Tax Justice Network's Andres Knobel demonstrates that despite progress in recent years on closing down opportunities for tax evasion, there are still significant loopholes for citizens and … [Read more...]


Bloomberg, Top 3% of U.S. Taxpayers Paid Majority of Income Taxes in 2016:

Individual income taxes are the federal government’s single biggest revenue source. In fiscal year 2018, which ended Sept. 30, the individual income tax is expected to bring in roughly $1.7 trillion, or about half of all federal revenues, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Bloomberg looked into the 2016 individual returns data in detail for some additional insights illustrated in the charts below:

• The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (37.3 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (30.5 percent).
• The top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97 percent of total individual income taxes.

Short-Changed: How the IMF’s tax policies are failing women ActionAid

African Governments Are Paying for the World Bank’s Mauritius Miracle Foreign Policy
‘Ghost offices on the small island provide legal but questionable means of siphoning tax dollars away from poor countries and into the pockets of the global elite.’

New Guide Simplifies Extractives Company Tax Payment Analysis Natural Resource Governance Institute

Panama Papers reveal offshore payments by Madagascar’s seafood king ICIJ

European Commission withdraws European Court of Justice case against Ireland after €13.1 billion Apple tax is recovered The Journal

‘Enough excuses!’ – France’s Le Maire grows impatient over digital tax The Irish Times
‘Mr Le Maire has said a small- or medium-sized company in an EU country such as France, Germany or Italy on average pays 14 percentage points more in tax than Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.’

London remains a safe haven for the world’s dirty cash The Guardian
See also: London’s financial flows are polluted by laundered money – Time to clean up The Economist (paywall)

Daily Beast: Danske Bank Scandal Whistleblower Allegedly Killed OCCRP

Tax evasion: blacklist of 21 countries with ‘golden passport’ schemes published The Guardian

The Wealth-Defense Industry – Lessons from the Trumps’ tax-avoidance racket. The Nation
Read about enablers and intermediaries here.

Revealed: Russian billionaire set up US company before Trump Tower meetingThe Guardian
‘formed a shell company with an accountant who has had clients accused of money laundering and embezzlement’

New money laundering warnings on Scottish shell firms Herald Scotland

Shell and Eni on trial Global Witness
Oil giants Shell and Eni are on trial in Milan for their part in a bribery scheme that robbed the Nigerian people of $1.1billion.