#1
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and probably won't care now that you have

http://eurodad.org/13602/

http://eurodad.org/tax-justice/capital-flight/

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/resurgence/2012/268/cover03.htm

IN early December the coffee-shop chain Starbucks was all over the international media headlines. Citizens' movements in the UK found it unfair that their local coffee shop had to pay taxes while multinational Starbucks got away without any tax contributions. Following public campaigning, Starbucks agreed to pay 'a significant amount of tax' over the next two years.1

This case is a telling example of how rich corporations, with the help of good lawyers, accountants and complex company structures, can shift their profits to countries in which taxes are low or absent. Google and Amazon are other giant companies whose tax-dodging practices have made it to the headlines.

http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Eurodad_Capital_Flight_Fact_sheet.pdf

B. How do South-North capital flows work? Capital flight from developing countries is more a case of tax avoidance than of corruption or crime according to leading experts such as Raymond Baker. The losses to developing countries through commercial tax avoidance account for about US$350 to US$500 billion4 a year, more than three times global ODA.

Tax avoidance is the legal utilisation of tax regimes in order to minimise the amount of taxes to be paid. The main means are transfer mis-pricing and using tax havens as a base for corporate activity. Transfer mis-pricing in trade5 is where two or more businesses –controlled by the same people- trade with each other at prices arranged to avoid taxes. A company will export or import goods or services at a very low or high price in order to avoid taxes in the place of origin and take profit elsewhere. Examples include an American firm importing plastic buckets from its subsidiary in the Czech Republic at $972.98 per unit.

Today more than 60% of global trade is intra-firm trade between subsidiaries of transnational companies.6 Most transnational companies use transfer mis-pricing schemes and tax havens in order to minimize taxes. Efforts from decision makers and international institutions like the World Bank focus mainly on the issue of Southern corruption, turning a blind eye to the supply side of corruption, which involves international banks, investors and tax havens7.

also note that when the oecd goes after tax havens it focuses on third worldist peoples republics like tuvalu and liberia rather than european imperialist countries like switzerland. how fucked up is that.
#2
hi
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this thread will likely be trolled for being "incrementalist" or w/e but i think tax evasion is an important topic and a major impediment to development in the third world.
#3
hi
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http://www.gfintegrity.org/content/view/300/154/
Africa lost $854 billion in illicit financial outflows from 1970 through 2008, according to this new report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI). Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: Hidden Resource for Development debuts new estimates for volume and patterns of illicit financial outflows from Africa, building upon GFI's ground-breaking 2009 report, Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002-2006, which estimated that developing countries were losing as much as $1 trillion every year in illicit outflows. The new Africa illicit flows report is expected to feature prominently at the 3rd Annual Conference of African finance ministers in Malawi, which is currently underway.

"The amount of money that has been drained out of Africa-hundreds of billions decade after decade-is far in excess of the official development assistance going into African countries," said GFI director Raymond Baker. "Staunching this devastating outflow of much-needed capital is essential to achieving economic development and poverty alleviation goals in these countries."

Examining data for a 39-year range from 1970 to 2008, key report findings include:

Total illicit financial outflows from Africa, conservatively estimated, were approximately $854 billion;
  • Total illicit outflows from Africa may be as high as $1.8 trillion;
  • Sub-Saharan African countries experienced the bulk of illicit financial outflows with the West and Central African region posting the largest outflow numbers;
  • The top five countries with the highest outflow measured were: Nigeria ($89.5 billion) Egypt ($70.5 billion), Algeria ($25.7 billion), Morocco ($25 billion), and South Africa ($24.9 billion);
  • Illicit financial outflows from the entire region outpaced official development assistance going into the region at a ratio of at least 2 to 1;
  • Illicit financial outflows from Africa grew at an average rate of 11.9 percent per year.
"This report breaks new ground in the fight to end global poverty with analyses and measurements of illicit financial outflows never before undertaken," said Mr. Baker. "As long as these countries are losing massive amounts of money to illicit financial outflows, economic development and prosperity will remain elusive."
#4
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Wait.....wait.....so you're telling me that capitalists try and maximize their profit....even when it goes against the spirit of the law?

i've never heard of this!!!
#5
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a trillion dollars is a chunk of change for developing countries, that's like 5% of their GDP and a quarter of their investment.
#6
objekt-a.tumblr.com
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smash capitalism.
#7
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banker's revolt in switzerland.
#8
[account deactivated]
#9
[account deactivated]
#10
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there are third world tax havens too, they just arent as big obv
#11
Poronto
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how on earth is this sort of thing supposed to be solved via incrementalist strategies though? i mean it's cool we've identified a concrete mechanism, but i'm not sure there's any strategies to directly attack it
#12
Online
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littlegreenpills posted:

how on earth is this sort of thing supposed to be solved via incrementalist strategies though? i mean it's cool we've identified a concrete mechanism, but i'm not sure there's any strategies to directly attack it

Close the loopholes while enacting offsetting tax cuts to bring the corporations within the law.

#13
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ilmdge posted:

Close the loopholes while enacting offsetting tax cuts to bring the corporations within the law.



hahaha yes

#14
[account deactivated]
#15
Tokyo, Japan
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"tax evasion: a big problem you've never heard about" <- Tax avoidance and tax evasion have been on the news in the UK for the last year or so. With Starbucks, Amazon, Google, Facebook and then people like Jimmy Carr and Gary Barlow! Just 3 days ago this was on the news.
Tax evasion: Criminal crackdown to accelerate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21121840

Edited by Merzbow ()

#16
Online
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I heard that Greeks don't pay their taxes, dunno if anyone can elaborate for us or if that's pretty much the whole story
#17
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yeah basically greeks elected socialists who only taxed rich people and their economy failed and then they parasited off protestant countries so greeks can retire at 50 and germans retire at 67. europe is socialist and thats why they have so many problems
#18
Online
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http://www.marxist.com/myth-of-lazy-greek-workers.htm

What about the age of retirement and pension levels? If we were to believe the bourgeois media Greeks live in a kind of workers’ paradise, where they can all retire early and nice big pensions. Again, facts and figures are stubborn things and they give a completely different picture. The average age of retirement in Greece is 61.4 years, a little higher than the European average of 61.1 years.
#19
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before socail security literacy was 95% and people retired with their kids, family socialism has been replaced by government socialism. now families have no incentive to have children because they can afford to retire, and the white race is dying out while immigrants steal social security numbers
#20
Tokyo, Japan
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#21
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I'm evading as many taxes as possible this year. 1040FU
#22
Kurdt
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eurodad
#23
YUNG JIRO AKA SHOWA STUNNA AKA
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gyrofry posted:

eurodad

#24
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jiroemon1897 posted:

gyrofry posted:

eurodad



does your kami post on rhizzone?

#25
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littlegreenpills posted:

how on earth is this sort of thing supposed to be solved via incrementalist strategies though? i mean it's cool we've identified a concrete mechanism, but i'm not sure there's any strategies to directly attack it



This process is mainly a function of technology, and now that the E-cat is out of the bag I honestly don’t see how one would go about tackling it even under a revolutionary government.

#26
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which ecat, the pyramid scheme?

http://ecat.com/
#27
mt.real
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I haven't filed my taxes in years

when I tell this to Americans I think some of them poop a little thinking of irs goons
#28
[account deactivated]
#29
Mike Nelson here.
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drwhat posted:

I haven't filed my taxes in years

why not? do you still get sales tax rebates and all that?

#30
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banks run africa

http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-570796


Revolving doors: staff turnover between IFIs and African governments
Inside the inst|Bretton Woods Project|3 July 2012|update 81|url
print|email |bookmark FacebookTweet thisdel.icio.usDigg!Stumble UponRedditGoogle BookmarksYahoo Buzz

The term 'revolving doors' refers to frequent staff turnover between institutions, usually relevant when these represent different interests working on the same policy issues. This serves to foster cross-institutional networks, practices and alliances. The staff turnover between international financial institutions (IFIs) and borrowing governments works as a mechanism through which specific ideas and practices learnt and promoted in IFIs are translated into policies in borrowing countries.

The World Bank’s Global Secondment Program is designed to train officials from borrowing countries through special assignments at the Bank. The stated goal of this programme, which many times serves as a pre-recruitment stage, is "skills enhancement, knowledge sharing, strategic alliances, cultural exchange, and diversification". The Voice Secondment Program, meanwhile, targets civil servants from low-income countries aiming to assist the Bank's relations with their governments.

As of April this year, of the 47 Sub-Saharan African countries funded by the Bank, 20 per cent of finance ministers were found to have previously been employed by the Bank or IMF. Out of these, 77 per cent took up their initial government posting within a year of leaving their IFI post and only Uganda's finance minister, Maria Kiwanuka, was an elected representative.
#31
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i preferred the old days when you could be all like 'evasion? no son thats avoidance, its fine, get off your high horse'