#165 Tackling misinformation on tax
#164 Wealth Tax Wave in the USA
Guests

Tax is intensely political. It’s routinely misreported by media of all kinds, and often it’s the subject of downright disinformation. We look at how to deal with a lack of truth telling, from the experiences of the Tax Justice Network itself and those of a retired scientist and IT professional who’s had a lot of success in combating it. Plus: our new Real Estate Secrecy Index – who are the world’s worst offenders?

They can’t get away with this. It’s a victory. It’s a small victory for truth.” ~ Alan Williams Key

Misinformation, fake news goes against democratic processes. You can’t have proper democracy without pushing back against misinformation in the press.” ~ Mark Bou Mansour

Real estate is not the only high value asset that you can use to hide illicit flows, but it’s certainly one of the easiest and one of the most attractive.” ~ Alex Cobham

Jargon
High Net Worth Individuals

HNWIs, pronounced Hen-Wees: Wealthy individuals. Commonly this means people with investable assets worth over US$1 million. In 2011 Capgemini and Merrill Lynch estimated that there were 10.9 million HNWIs worldwide, with financial wealth worth US$42 trillion.

Offshore

A tax haven or secrecy jurisdiction is a place that deliberately provides an escape route for people or entities who live or operate elsewhere. They shield them from whatever taxes, criminal laws, financial regulations, transparency or other constraints they don’t like. Ordinary people whose lives are affected by tax haven laws are not consulted on these laws because they live in other countries: they have no say in how those laws are made, thus undermining their democratic rights.

Secrecy Jurisdiction

A tax haven or secrecy jurisdiction is a place that deliberately provides an escape route for people or entities who live or operate elsewhere. They shield them from whatever taxes, criminal laws, financial regulations, transparency or other constraints they don’t like. Ordinary people whose lives are affected by tax haven laws are not consulted on these laws because they live in other countries: they have no say in how those laws are made, thus undermining their democratic rights.

Tax Haven

A tax haven or secrecy jurisdiction is a place that deliberately provides an escape route for people or entities who live or operate elsewhere. They shield them from whatever taxes, criminal laws, financial regulations, transparency or other constraints they don’t like. Ordinary people whose lives are affected by tax haven laws are not consulted on these laws because they live in other countries: they have no say in how those laws are made, thus undermining their democratic rights.

UN Tax Convention

Establishing a UN tax convention would make sure equitable international tax rules are established through a genuinely representative process and made legally binding globally.

Further Sources

1

Express business coverage found to have breached Editors’ Code 12 times this year

2

Alan Williams Key's successful complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation about claims printed about millionaire migration from the UK

3

Millionaire “exodus” claim backtracked but media re-run story anyway

4

Study behind millionaire exodus claims drops author and numbers after fake data accusations - Tax Justice Network

5

Introducing the Real Estate Secrecy Index - Tax Justice Network

6

Financial Secrecy Index
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