Monday, January 24, 2011

Links - Jan 24

Some Links

Shopping for Anonymous Shell Companies: An Audit Study of Anonymity and Crime in the International Financial System Journal of Economic Perspectives - Fall 2010
Jason Sharman's widely cited study. "Not only do the world’s major financial centers offer tighter secrecy, but corporate entities formed therein enjoy a status, standing, and legitimacy that are far less likely to arouse suspicion than those from stigmatized offshore locales." Ties in with Treasure Islands' observations.

Roger Ehrenberg's Prescription for Robbing a Bank Naked
Capitalism
Jan 24 - Some lighthearted fun, with a serious message.

Will the Tax Cheaters' Lobby Stop the IRS from Catching Foreign Tax Evaders? Citizens for Tax Justice
Jan 21 - Rebecca Wilkins of Citizens for Tax Justice, comments on a development of massive importance (that we blogged earlier), with the U.S.A. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposing new rules requiring banks to report interest paid to nonresident foreign individuals - just as they report interest on U.S. citizens and residents. The IRS could use this information to respond to foreign governments' requests for information about their citizens' U.S. income - a crucial step forward as we move towards automatic information exchange.

Illicit Financial Flows out of Latin America Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development
Jan 21 - Abigail Poe, Director of the Latin American Security program at the Center for International Policy in Washington DC, highlights the impact on Latin America and the Caribbean of illicit financial flows, as reported by our friends at Global Financial Integrity in their annual update which we blogged earlier.

Middle East Fast Bleeding Money Inter Press Service (IPS)
Jan 21 - More comment on GFI's annual report on illicit financial flows from developing countries. "Illicit capital flight needs somewhere to go, therefore, one of the best ways of dealing with the problem of these illicit outflows is to increase transparency in the global financial system and make it much harder to hide ill-gotten wealth"

Senate to Introduce Bill to Ban Tax Strategy Patents Accounting Today
Jan 20 - Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and ranking member Chuck Grassley, released the language of legislation they intend to introduce that would eliminate the patenting of tax strategies. “Patenting common tax strategies undermines the fairness of our tax system,” said Baucus. See out July 2007 blog.

US Insurance Costs of Neal Bill Defended Tax-News
Jan 24 - Proposed legislation will clamp down on offshore tax dodging in the insurance industry.
And counter-arguments? ... the proposed bill would cost consumers an additional USD10bn-USD12bn per year to maintain their current insurance coverage. a) this is a lobbyists' number - and, as such, doubtless vastly exaggerated
b) the gains to taxpayers, estimated at 17bn, are far greater even than the lobbyists' doubtless extreme number. The difference goes into the pockets of the rich. Stop this abuse.

Transfer Pricing is 'critical tax issue' Business Day, South Africa
Jan 21 - Tax directors worldwide regard transfer pricing as the most important tax issue their companies face and believe that it will be "absolutely critical" within the next two years, according to a report issued by Ernst & Young on Wednesday. The rising awareness is good news. Unfortunately, the practice of transfer mispricing is getting more aggressive, and more prevalent.

Exploring the Role Delaware Plays as a Domestic Tax Haven Social Science Research Network
Jan 10 - On Delaware's role as a tax haven. A problem with this analysis is that tax isn't Delaware's killer app. Read Treasure Islands to find out what Delaware is really selling.

Jersey Publishes 2011 Budget Statement Tax-News
Jan 21 - Taxes to increase for individuals and small businesses in Jersey. Read Treasure Islands and find out about the crowding-out of other viable economic activity, and the suffering of local people outside of the circles of the elite.

Richard Murphy in Jersey Tax Research
Jan 24 - Richard to engage and discuss tax reform, transparency, and Plan B - an alternative economic plan for Jersey

The quality of local journalism Channel Island Forums
Jan 24 - The free press is not so free in the Channel Islands.

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