#25 Tax incentives, Africa-style
#24 Lawyers and tax justice
#26 The Bahamas is broke

In the January Taxcast: Tax justice goes to the Cayman Islands; the latest fall-out from #OffshoreLeaks, the expose on tax havens from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; and HOW much does Africa spend on corporate tax breaks?! The Taxcast looks at tax ‘incentives’, Africa-style.

Want to download to listen to any time offline? Download here.

Jargon
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.

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.

Tax Incentives

Countries offer tax incentives – for example, zero taxes on income from capital gains – in order to attract money from elsewhere. Research suggests that cross-border tax incentives typically serve little or no economic purpose and are frequently harmful.

More episodes
Mar 28
2025
The Taxcast
#152 The Chinese Phantom
How easy is it to get filthy rich selling arms to anyone who'll pay? There may be sanctions, there may be laws, but even though he's the FBI's most wanted fugitive, a Chinese arms dealer and manufacturer has evaded arrest for two decades. Who could be better to investigate one of the world’s most dangerous men and tell this story than Panama Papers journalists? What does their investigation tell us about sanctions and financial secrecy at a time of rising autocracy and global insecurity?
View full episode info
Feb 27
2025
The Taxcast
#151 Ending US financial secrecy
The rollercoaster story of the battle in the US (the world's biggest global financial secrecy offender) over the implementation of a beneficial ownership register, the attempts to stop it & the (many) lessons learned from the UK's registers.
View full episode info
Jan 31
2025
The Taxcast
#150 Al-Assad and Guernsey
A Syrian kleptocrat and alleged war criminal, and the British Crown Dependency of Guernsey. Plus: on day one of his presidency, Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the OECD's global minimum tax deal. So what now?
View full episode info
Dec 18
2024
The Taxcast
#149 $6.2 million banana
A world where someone pays $6.2 million for a banana duct-taped to a wall is a world that needs wealth taxes. But unsubstantiated spin and myth making dominates the debate. We look at the Tax Justice Network's modest wealth tax proposal which could help governments increase their national budgets by 7 percent a year, a potential global revenue of more than 2 trillion US dollars annually. And we discuss what research really says about so-called 'tax flight' by the very wealthy because of tax reforms.
View full episode info
Nov 29
2024
The Taxcast
#148 Trump: All's Not Lost
What are the implications of Donald Trump's election victory for tax justice and the anti-corruption fight, not just in the US but globally? We see a moment of clarity... Plus two pieces of really good news: 1) the latest vote at the UN as countries vote overwhelmingly to take negotiations on the UN Tax Convention to the next step, leaving the blocker nations in a tiny minority. 2) despite huge lobbying to try to stop them, Australian politicians have shown how politicians really can act in the public interest.
View full episode info
Nov 1
2024
The Taxcast
#147 Three big wins
On the Taxcast this month, three big tax justice wins: first, the draft UN convention - showing exactly why the United Nations is so much better and more democratic a place for the world to truly reform international tax rules. Second, the Financial Action Task force has announced important changes which indicate a shift away from the colonial mindset that established a system that's not working because it fails to hold the really big offender nations to account. And third, the Australian government seems to be holding its nerve against major lobbying pressure and is getting closer to implementing its world leading country by country reporting legislation.
View full episode info