Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Links Aug 16

Tanzania in talks with miners to raise royalties on gold Reuters
Aug 15 - Tanzania is Africa's fourth-largest gold producer and has attracted significant investment in the mining sector over the past decade, but there is political pressure on the government to stake claim to a bigger share of revenue from mineral exports. There are negotiations underway to raise royalty payments. Tanzania also said in June it was considering a "super profit" tax on earnings from minerals as one of the ways to fund its five-year development plan - the move follows similar steps in other producer countries.

Gambia: President Yahya Jammeh's D100,000,000 (US$ 3.5 million) home in Maryland revealed Senegambia News

Aug 15 - The report describes how following a year long investigation into an alleged purchase of a multi-million dollar mansion in the United States, Gambians outraged at corruption have today released documents and photographs of President Yahya Jammeh's $3.5M property in the state of Maryland. According to the report, The property was purchased under the name 'Trustees of My J Family Trust.'

India: Anna Hazare - anti-corruption activist's arrest sparks protests across India Guardian
Aug 16 - "Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across India on Tuesday to protest against the arrest of country's most prominent anti-corruption campaigner and more than 1,000 of his followers ... A crackdown earlier this year successfully broke up demonstrations by tens of thousands of followers of a fasting yoga guru protesting graft."

Greece: Increasing number of citizens report tax evaders ekathimerini
Aug 16 - "More and more Greeks are eager to be involved in combating tax evasion and financial crimes, as the number of complaints to the authorities more than quadrupled last year from the year before."

Italian unions threaten strike over new austerity Associated Press
Aug 16 - "The leader of Italy's largest union is threatening a general strike against an austerity package that Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government hastily pushed through to balance the budget by 2013 and avoid financial collapse." Some critics, 'including nine members of Berlusconi's own coalition, say it unfairly targets the middle class and fails to tackle Italy's massive tax evasion problem."

Unite Scotland - Economic Brief – Corporation Tax Tax Research UK
Aug 16 - As Scotland considers engaging in the race-to-the-bottom, Richard Murphy and Unite provide a response to the launch of the Scottish Government's Corporation Tax Discussion Paper, ‘Options for Reform’ .

This is not the case of one rotten apple, or even one rotten company. This is big corporate culture Tax Research UK
Aug 16 - Richard Murphy comments on charades and shams in the world of big corporate and tax havenry. "If the directors of those companies can believe in this charade there are two things to say about them. The first is that they are willing to turn a blind eye to any abuse if it will increase their profits. The second is that they live in a world so far removed from reality that any defence is believed by them to be plausible."

Goldman, Citigroup Employees Big Givers To Deficit Super Committee Forbes

Aug 16 - "If money does buy influence, the financial services industry should be in pretty good shape when the 12 members of a new Congressional “Super Committee” start meeting to decide how to trim at least $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade. A new analysis by MapLight, a not-for-profit which tracks political money, shows that the Political Action Committees and employees of six public companies— five of them entirely or partly in financial services—rank among the 10 largest organizational givers to the 12 politicians from 2001 through 2010 ...The top organizational giver, according to MapLight, was the fervently anti-tax Club for Growth." See Warren Buffett's call to this "Super Committee" reported in our blog yesterday.

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