Links Mar 22

Press Release: Governments should name banks that took corrupt money from Gaddafi, Mubarak and Ben Ali Global Witness
Mar 20 - A clear message must be sent to banks that doing business with corrupt dictators is unacceptable: first, those banks holding dirty money should be publicly named and then regulators need to devise a new system which stops banks from taking suspect funds in the first place.

Press Release: IMF and Kenya Host Conference for Sub-Saharan Africa on Improving Tax Revenue Mobilization IMF
Mar 21 - The conference, beginning Mar 21, is hosted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Government of Kenya and brings together senior tax officials from over 40 African countries to help improve tax revenue mobilization across sub-Saharan Africa. The IMF"s Director of Fiscal Affairs Carlo Cottarelli said: "Effective revenue collection can unlock vital resources for African countries to tackle the root causes of poverty and promote their long term development in an equitable and transparent manner".

Google questioned by SEC over earnings in low-tax countries Bloomberg
Mar 21 - How Google cut its income taxes by $3.1 billion over three years by shifting the bulk of foreign profits to Ireland, then the Netherlands and eventually to no-tax Bermuda, according to regulatory filings in the U.S. and abroad.

See also:
Apple, Google may profit from a tax holiday Bloomberg Businessweek
Mar 18 - In the U.S., those companies and others say they'll bring home billions in earnings - but only if they get a big tax break.

See also earlier report:
How offshore tax havens save companies billions NPR
Mar 17 - Jesse Drucker, who has done some excellent reporting on how U.S. companies use tax havens to avoid billions, explains how it's done - as we blogged here.

Argentina suspends exporters Agriculture.com
Mar 21 - Argentina's tax agency on Monday broadened a crack-down on what it says is rampant tax evasion by multi-national grain exporters, suspending three more companies from a key grain trading registry. The companies have been evading taxes by triangulating their grain trading operations through other countries, among other measures.

Northern Ireland - more steps towards tax havenry Treasure Islands
Mar 19 - "The evidence just keeps mounting: the UK government is on the warpath on tax havens, and not in a good way. The aims seems to be to turn the UK into more of a tax haven ... Who is going to raise their voice against this stuff?"

And finally, they are moving ... TJN Germany Blog (In German)
Mar 21 - Potentially, some movements in a positive direction ... In Luxembourg, Prime Minister Juncker stated support for a Financial Transactions Tax within the Eurozone, contradicting the view of Finance Minister Frieden ...From Ireland, while there is still holdout against pressure to increase the corporate tax rate, there are indications that that the government may be willing to concede to EU on the proposed common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) in exchange for a reduction on interest rates on the bailout loans. See also: Government insists it will not yield on corporate tax rate Irish Times Mar 22.

Why is a powerful faux liberal UK think tank using recycled US Republican talking points to fight breaking up banks? naked capitalism
Mar 21 - "How frequent, how intense and how expensive are these crises to be, then? Are the tax receipts worth it? How does that fit in with the massive implicit taxpayer support?" Hat tip The Cynical Tendency.