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), […]
Britain must adopt a financial transaction tax Read More »
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.
Appearance on RT News: Britain’s network of tax havens Read More »
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
Let’s stop subsidising big companies to exploit poor people Read More »
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
I was on RT News at noon on Wednesday giving my predictions for a predictably dire budget and giving Osborne both barrels. Watch here
Appearance on RT News: Bashing the budget Read More »
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
Tax avoidance is beginning to hit multinationals’ bottom lines Read More »
My editorial from the March issue of International Tax Review. It has been a busy month for tax reform with the European Commission announcing the details of how its financial transaction tax (FTT) will look under enhanced cooperation, as EU Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta writes in this issue. But by far the most important document
A new era dawns for tax reform Read More »
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.
Ed Balls should not fall on his sword, Britain needs him Read More »
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
Rafael Correa’s re-election in Ecuador shows alternative to neoliberalism Read More »
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
