The Full Monti

From Mario Monti, Italy's new leader it seems: an old quote that sums up the whole tax haven issue:

'If you create a tax haven for a few people, you condemn the rest to a tax hell.' - Mario Monti

As Burlesque-oni moves out and Monti (probably) moves in, we encourage Italy to become a force in the tax justice movement.

For background see a somewhat out of date, but seemingly prescient, article from The Economist: Mario Monti, Europe’s taxman-in-chief. That article is also interesting because of the attitude

"If you find a year or two hence (as you well may) that you can no longer park your money quietly in a Luxembourg bank account and the taxman be damned, that will be largely Mr Monti’s doing. And when you find next year that duty-free sales have been abolished for journeys within the EU, Mr Monti will have helped that one along too. But look on the bright side."

These things have not yet really come to pass (and 'in a year or two hence' was referring to the then nascent European Savings Tax Directive - which took another seven years to come into effect, full of holes.) But at least that complacent, nod-and-wink attitude towards tax evasion from The Economist in 1998 would not be tolerated today.

And that's progress.