Countries can either capitulate to President Trump's tax bullying. Or come together to fight for the sovereign right to tax multinationals fairly. In this episode we ask whether US economic policy is actually good for the US economy and its people. We've done some number crunching looking at what really happened after Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It tells us a lot about the state of tax justice, its real effects on people, and the misguided exercise of power.

When tax officials and law enforcement do manage to recover assets and money from criminals, what happens next? The Taxcast goes to West Yorkshire in the North of England to see social reuse of seized assets in action. Plus: President Donald Trump pardons convicted money launderer and billionaire founder of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. What are the ramifications?

We look at the outsized influence of a small and secretive Catholic institution, Opus Dei, from Spain's dictator Franco to Trump. And the bank it controlled for sixty years. Plus: in the latest twist in the epic battle to end anonymous ownership in the United States, the US's financial regulator FinCEN has announced plans to actually delete company ownership information. We look at the options to stop the US sliding even further into a corruption abyss.

The persecution of anyone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant in the United States is not only taking the form of armed, masked ICE agents. Tax is being weaponised against them too. An estimated 10.9 million undocumented immigrants are the powerhouse of the United States economy, and also an exploitable workforce with minimal rights. It turns out that they're paying a higher effective tax rate than 55 mega-corporations and several billionaires. We look at the data that show how devastating it is for the economy and public services too. Plus: bullying at home, bullying abroad: President Trump is deploying tariffs and threats of tariffs against countries who have the audacity to want to tax US multinationals fairly.

Millionaires are not fleeing countries to escape taxes. The Tax Justice Network has analysed these claims and found it's questionable data published by a firm that helps the super-rich buy their way out of rules that apply to everybody else. In fact, things are changing for people in the business of helping to sell passports and residency. Some doors are closing...Plus, we look at the latest results from the Financial Secrecy Index - what are the latest global trends and have you heard of an anocracy?!

The life-changing, life-saving, transformational nature of tax - for people and planet. Ireland's got a tax windfall of about €14 billion - that's roughly  $15 billion. What are they going to do with it? We don't do enough about blue sky thinking on how tax can transform our lives. This is our chance to unlock our imaginations. It's also time for Ireland to rethink its tax haven model and for many countries, not just Ireland, to ask who it's economy is serving.

The Taxcast looks at the battle for freedom of the press in Switzerland and the implications for the rest of the world. Investigative journalists like Bastian Obermayer risks arrest, fines and imprisonment if he sets foot in Switzerland again, and Swiss journalists are having to turn away strong public interest stories - for fear of not just rich and powerful people coming after them, but also the Swiss state. Switzerland's always been famous for its banking secrecy laws and it's never been the friendliest place for investigative journalists. Now the situation threatens to get even worse.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Are banks claims about their financing of fossil fuel companies true, or are they green laundering? The Tax Justice Network has been following the money, and our investigations show how financial secrecy is allowing banks to hide the true scale of their backing for activities that are accelerating the climate crisis. It's an international scandal.Plus: the judgment is final: Apple must now pay back taxes in Ireland of 13 billion euros, over 14 billion dollars. It's a big win for the European Commission. We discuss the implications.

There are some massive heists happening that many of us have never heard of. Taxcast host Naomi Fowler talks to investigative journalist and author Geoff White about how crypto and the tech industry are impacting money laundering, and challenging national and international security. The rights and responsibilities for the tech and crypto industry, and 'freedom of speech' defences are being tested in court. The outcomes will have profound effects on all of us.

In this episode: we go to the US to look at how African Americans were overtaxed and dispossessed - a lesser known story of struggles against tax injustice, from the experience of George Floyd's great great grandfather to this day. Plus: the OECD ignores a formal letter from UN human rights experts raising concerns about the detrimental and discriminatory impacts on the Global South of OECD and G20 tax policy

In this episode: stories of how we've all been cheated, and a look at some of the actors involved in the corruption of tax policy making in Australia; the consequences have rippled out to affect the rest of the world too. How do we protect ourselves from the forces seeking to limit tax justice in the world? Plus, we'll bring you the latest updates on historic negotiations between nations on a UN Tax Convention from a Tax Justice Network colleague who was in the room and gives us his impressions.

"This will supersede them all." Offshore specialist and human rights lawyer Paul Beckett of Corlett Bolton & Co sounds the alarm on the fast development of 'blockchain havens.'The Tax Justice Network's Bob Michel speaks about the challenges regulators, anti-corruption campaigners and poorer countries face."Cryptocurrency and transactions through the blockchain are tax havens in themselves. But also they touch down on earth into the bricks and mortar world through blockchain havens. [They offer] the deliberate deletion of corporate oversight...an enormous black hole for transparency purposes. Impenetrable.""Secrecy jurisdictions everywhere are busily setting up specialist blockchain hubs. They're happy to be outdoing each other to offer regulatory refuge. And that's what they've always been about. Yet someone told me that they recently interviewed the relevant minister of a well known jurisdiction where they've set up a blockchain hub who told him he couldn't answer questions about crypto and blockchain policy because he didn't understand it!""Commercial work in the offshore havens is diminishing. The number of incorporations everywhere, particularly in places in the Caribbean, is falling, partly because of rules that have been adopted, but partly because people don't need them anymore."

Crime doesn't pay - or does it?! Taxcast host Naomi Fowler talks to former police investigator, asset recovery specialist and co-author of The War on Dirty Money Tristram Hicks about the state of criminal asset recovery. PLUS: The Tax Justice Network's Alex Cobham analyses Australia's much awaited, revised (aka watered down) legislation to tackle multinational tax abuse - disappointing but still significant. AND: a model wealth tax law has been agreed by consensus at the United Nations. We expected the OECD to try to block it but they didn't - why?

While we wait for a global tax body at the United Nations, what are the ways forward for nations desperate to tax multinationals fairly? We talk unitary taxation in a special extended interview with Emeritus Law Professor, coordinator of the BEPS Monitoring Group and Tax Justice Network special advisor Sol Picciotto.Plus: the return of our analysis slot - Taxcast host Naomi Fowler talks to Zorka Milin of the FACT Coalition about the US's new beneficial ownership registry and its shortcomings; and a tale of two crimes: the punishment of a whistleblower versus a magic circle lawyer in a $6000 suit.