Links Mar 9

Taxman has a win in ANZ Pacific tax haven case The Australian
Mar 10 - "The Australian Taxation Office scored an important court victory in its Project Wickenby investigation, winning access to more than 1300 customer accounts in the tax haven of Vanuatu that are linked to Australia." See recent TJN blog on Project Wickenby here.

Germany sides with tax havens in transparency fight Treasure Islands
Mar 8 - Nick Shaxson has posted an article on the EU Observer blog. It asks why Germany, which has long been a proponent of financial transparency in Europe, appears to have crossed over to the side of the tax havens. Read the article here.

Botswana moves to shake off 'tax haven' tag Mmegi
Mar 9 - "While Matambo admitted the shortcomings in Botswana laws, he said the country had tried its best to share tax information with as many countries as possible and had signed many double taxation agreements with numerous countries."

Africa: Illicit Capital Flows Hurt Africa's Fortunes allAfrica
Feb 27 - The article draws heavily from from the GFI Illicit financial flows study and the TJN-A publication "Tax Us If you Can- Why Africa should stand up for Tax Justice. Hat tip: Alvin Mosioma.

GFI Applauds Senate for Adopting Offshore Tax Amendment; Calls on House to Do Same Global Financial Integrity
Mar 8 - "Amendment to Raise $900 Million Over 10 Years ... 'This amendment provides the Treasury Department with an important tool to combat offshore tax evasion which is depriving our country of much needed tax revenue,' said Heather Lowe, director of Government affairs at Global Financial Integrity"

See also:
Financial services lobby concerned about tax-evasion proposal The Hill
Mar 8 - "Financial service lobbyists and some lawmakers are expressing concern about a Senate proposal that looks to crack down on offshore tax evasion."

Second Obama term worrisome for Caribbean financial centres Caribbean360
Mar 8 - "The prospect of a second term in office for United States president Barack Obama has caused some concern for the future of international financial centres across the Caribbean and further afield"

U.S. Policy Options to Raise Revenue Citizens for Tax Justice
Mar 8 - New report describes eleven options for Congress to raise revenue by reforming the U.S. tax system, including taxing capital gains the same as other income, ending corporations' ability to "defer" paying taxes on offshore profits, enacting the "Buffett Rule," ending tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, and several other sensible reforms."

£10m house in expensive London suburb recovered by Libya Global Witness
Mar 9 - "“This judgement is extremely important as it is the first successful asset recovery case brought by a country involved in the Arab Spring.”

Iraq’s EITI report shows discrepancies with a KPMG audit OpenOil
Mar 8 - "We were running some numbers on Iraq’s first EITI report, published in December, and stumbled on a surprising fact: the reconciliation report carried out by Price Waterhouse Cooper, mapped exactly onto an audit by KPMG of the Development Fund for Iraq accounts held in New York. And yet there is a discrepancy of at least $80 million between the two reports, and possibly as much as four billion dollars."

UK: A Mansion Tax misses the point Labour Land Campaign
Mar 9 - “... politicians should consider introducing an annual land value tax which will encourage landowners to make better use of our land, bring empty buildings and sites into use, reduce the cost of homes and commercial properties and would be impossible to avoid”