tax

Financial transaction tax

Britain must adopt a financial transaction tax

Eleven EU member states are pushing ahead with a plan to introduce a tiny tax on financial transactions. Four of Europe’s five largest economies are among them. Guess which one is missing? The UK House of Lords EU Subcommittee on Economic and Financial Affairs this week came out railing against the financial transaction tax (FTT), […]

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Appearance on RT News: Britain’s network of tax havens

The Tax Justice Network has released a report slamming Britain as the worst offender when it comes to financial secrecy thanks to its network of tax haven crown dependencies and overseas territories. I was back on RT News today responding to their report and calling on Britain to get its house in order.  

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Tax credits

Let’s stop subsidising big companies to exploit poor people

Austerity has extracted the last vestiges of “compassion” from conservatism, distilling what remains into policies so poisonously unfair they have led people unable to cope with the bedroom tax to suicide and self-harm, while thousands more are forced to choose between heating and eating. For those who want to see a market-driven economy with a

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VAT’s enough

My editorial from the April issue of International Tax Review. The annual circus of jibes, justifications and recriminations visited Britain again last month when Chancellor George Osborne unveiled his latest budget. Osborne faced a particularly rough ride this year, even with a tax agenda which has been broadly welcomed by British business. After all, with

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Starbucks tax avoidance

Tax avoidance is beginning to hit multinationals’ bottom lines

It used to be that tax avoidance saved businesses money. For decades, the world’s biggest multinational companies have been quietly shifting profits into tax havens to legally lower their tax bills and few but the most hardened activists batted an eyelid. The financial crisis has changed everything. With the public feeling the pinch of punishing

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Ed Balls should not quit

Ed Balls should not fall on his sword, Britain needs him

This article was originally written for Left Foot Forward In an open letter to the Shadow Chancellor, historian Anthony Seldon has called on Ed Balls to “fall on his sword” for the good of his party’s electability. According to Seldon, dropping Balls from front line politics would help Labour lose its tax and spend image.

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Rafael Correa wins re-election

Rafael Correa’s re-election in Ecuador shows alternative to neoliberalism

Rafael Correa swept to power in 2007 on a ticket of helping the poor. His election in Ecuador spelled a pink tide in Latin America as the once powerful parties of the conservatives and the liberals fell to new working class movements across the continent from Venezuela to Bolivia. This was not the old communism

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Appearance on LBC Radio: Ken Livingstone & David Mellor interview me on tax avoidance and the mansion tax

I was on Ken Livingstone and David Mellor’s LBC 97.3 show this morning, speaking in support of Ed Miliband’s plan for a 10p tax rate funded by a mansion tax, and how I would go about cracking down on tax avoidance in the unlikely event George Osborne were to call me up. My favourite moment

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