Archive

This section contains a list of major reports by TJN and partners, and useful category links, in alphabetical order.

First we wish to highlight Tax Us If You Can. Written by experts for a general readership, this provides an excellent introduction to the associated problems of capital flight, tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax competition. It discusses the policy failures that have brought us here, and proposes a range of practical solutions to this global crisis. (Commercial publishers are asked to obtain written permission from the International Secretariat to publish all or part of it.)
English ; Nederlands ; Français ; Português ; Deutsch ; Español .

This October 2009 project, Mapping the Faultlines, is the biggest ever mapping exercise of the world's secrecy jurisdictions. With data on 60 jurisdictions worldwide.

(We would also like to direct you to our pages with useful links to other sites - highlighting Richard Murphy's blog, the Tax Justice blog, and Offshore Watch, each of which is updated regularly. Also see our newsletter, produced every three months, and a separate archive run by TJN's Richard Murphy on his Tax Research site.)

In Alphabetical order:

The sections below are arranged mostly thematically; a few entries refer to the title of documents.

Accountability, and political accountability from tax. See this special edition of Tax Justice Focus (2007) and this TJN web section.
Accounting. See International Accounting Standards Board, below, and Country by Country Reporting, below.
Africa. See our Tax Justice for Africa web site and our section on aid and finance for development, and the section on transfer pricing, below. See also this speech (Jan '08) by South Africa's Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel and the section on political accountability, above.
Aid and Financing for Development. See the two TJN web sections, Aid, Tax, and Finance for Development here, and the TJN web section on Democacy, Tax and State-Building. The website Raising Tax Revenues (from 2009) now contains reference to many academic papers, civil society reports, policy documents and other useful resources. Also see this 2008 book: Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries exploring links between taxation, state-building and political representation and accountability (this OECD paper explores a similar theme) and The Precarious State of Public Finances (Jan 2008), with much data on taxes and related issues in developing countries. This June 2008 paper by Christian Aid examines the role of tax and state-building, in relation to the policy agenda of non-governmental organisations. This 2003 paper by Joseph Stiglitz on tax policy for development provides additional analysis. SOMO in the Netherlands wrote this informative paper on tax and finance for development in October 2008.
Amnesties, tax amnesties, see Repatriation, below.
Banks. Too many issues to cover comprehensively, but this blog points to research by the US Government Accountability Office and the Tax Justice Network on the subsidiaries of big companies in a number of countries, notably banks.
Britain. Too many things to list here, but click here for IMF identifying UK and other places as OFCs. This February 2009 Guardian investigation series contains much useful information, archived here. See also London is a tax haven, below, and United Kingdom, below. And see this blog on the Corporation of London and the January 2009 research by TJN's Richard Murphy on the tax haven subsidiaries of British banks.
Budget work for NGOs. The International Budget Project has a useful guide for work in this field. Also see A Guide to Tax Work for NGOs
Capital Flight. See Boyce and Ndiukmana's paper (April 2008) on $607 billion flight capital lost to African countries. See the new NGO report (May 2008) on capital flight, which is accompanied by a Eurodad Fact Sheet. This October 2008 paper by SOMO also contains a section on capital flight. See also this Global Financial Integrity on illicit flows from developing countries 2000-2006 . See also this March 2009 Oxfam report.
Capital Gains Tax. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here.
Capitalism's Achilles Heel A review by TJN's John Christensen in the London Review of Books, examining Raymond Baker's ground-breaking book on dirty money. Oct 2005.
Catholic Church. See this December 2008 blog about the Church's new Reflection Paper dealing with the offshore issue.
Cayman Isles. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here
Christian Aid report "Death and taxes: the true toll of tax dodging," May 2008. Calculating that nearly 1,000 children die every day - just from tax evasion.
Code of Conduct for Taxation A proposed UN Code of Conduct; see here. For a TJN Code of Conduct click here (Written by TJN's Richard Murphy in October 2007; see the supporting arguments here)
Closing the Floodgates. TJN report examining how capital flight and tax evasion impacts on development; the mechanisms used to shift capital out of developing countries to tax havens; the role of financial professionals and tax havens. We identify a range of solutions. Feb 2007.
Combined Reporting. See this in-depth 2004 study by Mike McIntyre. Also see Transfer Pricing, Unitary Taxation, Formulary Apportionment.
Common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB). See transfer pricing.
Companies and corporations and their presence in tax havens. See this December 2008 report from the US Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) and see this March 2009 TJN research paper on companies' tax haven presence.
Corporate Responsibility. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here. Also see "Taxing issues: Responsible business and tax." Paper written by Richard Murphy and Sustainability on tax and corporate responsibility. 2006. See also some observations on corporate responsibility, with detailed calculations, in Mind The Tax Gap (2006)
Corruption. The TJN section on corruption. Also see this Sept./Oct 2008 article in The American Interest.
Country by Country reporting. This June 2009 report from the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development is here: English version: Français: and Deutsch: Also see the section on International Accounting Standards, below. A Country by Country reporting section on the Tax Research blog provides many news updates.
Credit crisis, credit crunch, see financial crisis, below.
Creating Turmoil, TJN's June 2008 submission to the UK treasury, substantially written by TJN's Richard Murphy. A full list of submissions to the select committee is here. See also financial crisis, below.
Crown dependencies, overseas territories (UK) Click here for a list. See this 2009 blog explaining their relationship to the UK. See the October 2009 Foot Report and TJN's analysis.
Data and Statistics from external sources. OECD statistics: basic tax data, and news; detailed data is subscription-only. We would highlight this in-depth Canadian report comparing high-tax and low-tax countries on poverty, inequality, growth and other dimensions of human development. For developing countries tax data is rather scarce. Some data is available from the International Tax Dialogue, and from Michael McIntyre's Taxation and Development site. We also like the Development Data site - but tax data is, again, sparse. The International Budget Project provides links to data on budgets and some tax data.
Deferred Tax. See TJN's explanations, and some calculations, in this 2006 publication Mind the Tax Gap. See also this August 2007 Tax Research report on rail companies.
Dictionary. TJN's Dictionary of Offshore Obfuscation. A light-hearted look at some commonly used terms.
Doha. Themes related to the United Nations summit meeting on Finance for Development in Doha, Qatar (from November 29-December 2, 2008). The U.N. website is here. TJN's special edition of Tax Justice Focus, focusing on Doha, is here. A brief overview of TJN's research and advocacy work on it is here. Also see this CIDSE report (June 2008) and Dries Lesage's academic report (June 2008, blogged here).
Domicile in the UK. For the basic principles, see this video. For a March 2007 TJN/Tax Research report on Domicile, click here . For the Tax Research blog archive, click here. For a few nice quotes, click here.

Economic crisis 2007-8, financial crisis, click here for TJN's new (Oct 2008) web section, and see Financial Crisis, below.
Email exchange between Jersey officials - Sept 2006 -
Ethics. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here.
Extracting Transparency A report written by TJN's Richard Murphy for Transparency International, Publish What You Pay, and others on the need for an International Financial Reporting Standard for the Extractive Industries. Sept 2005.
Extractive Industries. See this TJN website section on extractive industries and this website focused on US legislative changes pushing for country-by-country reporting for the extractive industries.
Exchange of Tax Information between countries. See TJN's dedicated page on Information Exchange
European Union Savings Tax Directive. See this TJN briefing paper and recommendations, March 2008. This blog provides a shorter summary of the directive, and discusses associated issues. See TJN's paper Plugging the Gaps on reforming the EU STD. For updates and history, see Richard Murphy's EU STD section here. Regarding reforms, see this Feb 2010 broad explanation of what's being changed; this November 2008 EU document and Richard Murphy's comment on it and subsequent updates here.
FATCA Act (US) see Exchange of Information.
Finance for Development: see Aid and Financing for Development, and Capital Flight, above.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF). This TJN blog highlights its role in legitimising the illegitimate. This Financial Times comment piece by TJN also gives a broad overview of the problems, and discusses solutions.
Financial crisis, credit crunch from 2007 onwards. See here for TJN's web section (from Oct 2008) For the role of tax havens in the crisis, see this Sept 2008 blog (with associated links) and this special edition of Tax Justice Focus (July 2008). This June 2008 TJN submission to the UK Treasury substantially written by TJN's Richard Murphy has more detail. (Other submissions are here.)
Flat taxes. See this short TJN piece (and associated links) or this short article, or this longer discussion paper. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here. This IMF paper also casts doubt on flat taxes.
Formulary Apportionment. See Unitary Taxation, below.
France. See this special edition of Tax Justice Focus, in English and en Français.
Glossary. Shorter TJN glossary here, and longer 45-page glossary here.
Guardian investigation into UK tax, tax avoidance and evasion, and tax havens, is archived here .
Guernsey. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here. See this TaxAnalysts study on Guernsey's tax evasion potential.
Hedge Funds. This section will be expanded; see this short blog on their tax subsidies.
History of tax. This short primer (2008) is a useful resource. This New Statesman article provides a little extra background. TaxAnalysts' Tax History Project and its Tax History Museum provides a more in-depth look at the issues, especially from a U.S. perspective. Tax Justice in History series: Thomas Paine, the Peasant's Revolt .
Health - tax and health. See the World Health Organisation's 2008 report from its Commission on the social determinants of health. Also see Christian Aid report "Death and taxes," (above.)
How companies and individuals cut their tax bills. In TJN's February 2007 report Closing the Floodgates (see above), Chapter Four describes how companies cut their tax bills; Chapter Five describes how individuals cut their tax bills. For an example, see how Enron cut its US taxes.
Identifying Tax Havens A TJN Briefing paper explaining what tax havens are. 2007.
Illicit Financial Flows See this January 2009 report from Global Financial Integrity Program (GFIP) and its statistical appendix. Also see this June 2007 speech by GFIP's Baker at a Washington Conference. See also this TJN discussion of the subject.And see "Capital Flight", above.
IMF/World Bank, tax advice. See this blog and the final chapter of this book and here for IMF identifying UK and other places as OFCs
Incentives, tax incentives. See this 2009 IMF paper exploring whether incentives boost growth in developing countries, and a corresponding wealth-transfer effect here. See also this 2004 study and literature review on the effects of tax incentives offered by U.S. states, and this example from the film industry.
Incidence, tax incidence see this TJN blog and associated links. See this Guardian article and this NYTimes blog and this CBO study which concludes that corporation taxes tend to fall on owners of capital, not labour.
Inequality, wealth and growth. See this TJN section and these quotations and this special edition (2007) of Tax Justice Focus. See also this March 2009 book review pointer "The Spirit Level" and this December 2006 study comparing social outcomes in high-tax Nordic countries with those in low-tax Anglo-American countries. See also these remarkable graphs , April 2009.
Information Exchange. See Exchange of Information.
Inheritance taxes. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here; for an explanatory video, see here.
Insider trading via secrecy jurisdictions / tax havens. A widespread problem, which we cover anedcotally in blogs covering telecommunications, here and here and here (and follow the links back.)
Intermediaries. See the OECD intermediaries project here, TJN's September 2007 recommendations here (especially points 4, 6 and 13) and TJN's emerging project on intermediaries here.
International Accounting standards (IASB and IFRS.) Also see Country by Country reporting. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here. Also see the background in this TJN blog and this June 2008 update. Prem Sikka's 2007 Guardian article is a good summary of the problem, and his Nov 2008 submission to the UK Treasury Committee on accounting and the banking crisis expands on it. This May 2010 briefing sheet, Who are the users of accounts? provides a useful extra perspective.
Internal Revenue Service of the United States has an Abusive Tax Scheme Program concerned about taxpayers who use offshore secrecy to conceal assets and income subject to US tax. See also the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act of February 2007.
International Tax Organisation (ITO). There is no such thing, but TJN supports the creation of some kind of international institution on global tax policy co-ordination, with developing countries properly represented. Frances Horner's seminal 2001 ITO article is here.
Ireland. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here.
Isle of Man. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here. Also see the TaxAnalysts report into tax evasion potential. For an explanation of how the UK subsidises the UK through its tax system, see here, then this further analysis following a 2007 revision.

Jersey - Still a Tax Haven. TJN's submission to a US Senate Finance Committee Hearing in July 2007 showing that Jersey is, despite the rhetoric of compliance, still firmly committed to tax haven activity. For the Tax Research archive, click here. See this in-depth report on Jersey's tax evasion potential here.
Laffer Curve. See our blog links to stories about this discredited idea and this from Citizens for Tax Justice.
Land Value Tax see this May 2010 edition of Tax Justice Focus.
Libel and the City of London. Follow the links back from this blog for a variety of stories.
Lobbying Offshore lobbying abounds, but this June 2010 report from the Corporate Europe Observatory gives some Jersey-related specifics.
London is a tax haven. We have written various things; a brief survey of the problem is illustrated in this August 2006 Red Pepper article . An IMF Working Paper also identified the UK as a tax haven: for a summary and link, see here. A Feb 2009 blog on the Corporation of London is here.
Map of the tax haven world
Mapping the Faultlines: TJN's huge research database mapping the world's secrecy jurisdictions, from October 2009.
Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall TJN's John Christensen opens up a new front in the corruption debate. 2006.
Missing Billions. A report prepared by TJN's Richard Murphy for the Trades Union congress calculating the tax lost to the UK Government from tax avoidance and from tax planning by the very wealthy.
Netherlands. See the Tax Justice Netherlands site here, and the Tax Research blog archive here. Why is the Netherlands a tax haven? See this short SOMO briefing paper.
Non-governmental organisations: see this Guide to Tax Work for NGOs
No Accounting for Tax Havens - An exploration of the impact of tax havens, from a British perspective. Written by the Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs (AABA). Feb 2002.
OECD. This article, Lessons from the last war on tax havens, describes how a 1998-2002 OECD effort to tackle the problem was eviscerated. See also this March 2009 blog looking at how the past may be repeated, and this blog (also in March 2009) looking at TJN's assessment of some OECD tax policies. This May 2009 briefing paper looks at the OECD and information exchange.
Other Side of the Coin. A report for the UK's All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on corruption in Africa. March 2006.
Outward Domestication. See an explanation in this June 2009 layman's guide, Tricky Tax: Two tax avoidance schemes explained.
Oxfam Report (March 2009) estimating tax haven losses to developing countries. Here.
Oxford Centre for Business Taxation and its critique of data produced by TJN and its allies: the original report, and TJN's response, is here, with an update here and conference videos hammering out the issues available here .
Pensions. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here.
Plato Index currently being developed with Dr. Edmund Valpy Fitzgerald of Oxford University. See our TJN web section on the latest state of play.
Politics and Accountable government. How taxation fosters more accountable government. See this web section; this edition of our newsletter, and this paper from the Institute of Development Studies
Price of Offshore. This short TJN briefing paper in 2005 estimated global revenue losses from $11.5 trillion of offshore wealth.
Private Equity. An interactive video; the Tax Research archive, click here. This TJN blog also outlines some core concerns.
Qualified Intermediary Program (US) see our April 2010 FATCA paper and Information Exchange page.
Quotations. Click here.
Redomiciliation. Another interactive video from Richard Murphy.
Rents, Natural rents: see this Tax Justice Focus edition focusing on Land Value Taxes.
Repatriation (under tax amnesties) - see this 2004 / 2009 U.S. example.
Shirts off their backs. This 2005 publication by Christian Aid warned that unless gaps in poorer countries' revenues are plugged by responsible tax policies and international action to curb tax havens, the UN's poverty reduction targets will be missed. It estimated that poorer countries lose $500 billion a year in capital flight losses as a result of tax dodging.
Singapore. Until our Mapping the Faultlines project is complete, we hold relatively little information about Singapore. In the meantime, try these December 2008 articles, written by an opposition politician.
Source- and Residence- based Taxation. A matter of fundamental importance, often overlooked, involving the different ways of taxing cross-border income. Capital-exporting rich countries prefer the OECD's model more favourable to residence-based taxation; capital-poor developing countries prefer the UN's model more favourable to source-based taxation. See TJN's briefing paper exploring the issues. See also this long TJN blog on the subject, Nov 2008.
South African companies. See this 2007 ILRIG report describing historical tax strategies of some big South African companies.
Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) Initiative, World Bank Report, 2007. See launch release and document
Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act co-sponsored by Senators Barack Obama (D), Norm Coleman (R) and Carl Levin (D) in February 2007. See the original bill here and our Nov 2008 blog looking at the details.

Tax Avoidance and compliance. From the Tax Research blog archive: for avoidance click here; for compliance click here.
Tax Competition and Co-operation. See this TJN web section and this briefing paper on the international dimensions of tax competition. This paper by Professor Sol Picciotto discusses the issues and contains a useful history of the emergence of the problem. See also this special edition of Tax Justice Focus (2006) on tax competition and this October 2008 paper by Christensen and Gurtner.
Tax cuts, cutting, supply side economics, see this report from Citizens for Tax Justice (and associated Links; this Washington Post story , and see "Laffer Curve," above. See also "incentives, tax incentives," above
Tax data and statistcs See Data and Statistics, above.
Tax Evasion. Amid the enormous amount of information, we would like to highlight this 2007 work by TaxAnalysts on Switzerland, on Jersey, on Guernsey, and on the Isle of Man.
Tax Gap. Missing Billions: Feb 2008 TUC report on the UK Tax Gap, prepared by TJN's Richard Murphy. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here. Also see Mind the Tax Gap. A report showing tax not paid by big UK corporations , explaining why this happens. Published in 2006 and covering the period 2000 - 2004.
Tax Haven Abuses: the Enablers, the Tools, and the Secrecy. A report by the US Senate on the offshore world.
Tax Havens - Releasing the hidden billions for poverty eradication Written by Oxfam in June 2000, this explores and explains the harmful impacts of tax havens on developing countries. See also the Tax Research archive on tax havens and this briefing paper and an explanatory video.
Tax Haven location of big U.S. and European companies. This blog points to research by the US Government Accountability Office and by the Tax Justice Network on the tax haven subsidiaries of big companies in a number of countries, notably banks. The Swiss magazine Hebdo added a study of Swiss companies in tax havens in June 2009.
Tax Incidence, see Incidence.
Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs). See Exchange of Information, above, and this June 2009 briefing paper on information exchange.
Tax Policy and Development Alex Cobham of the Oxford Council on Good Governance looks at how tax policies have developed around the world, with a focus on developing countries. Oct 2005. See also "Aid and Finance for Development", above. Also see this 2008 book: Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries. See also Aid, tax and Finance for Development, above, and TJN's sections on Aid, Tax and Financing for Development, as well as its section on Democracy, Tax and State-building.
Tax Protests, protesters. This January 2010 blog addresses the issues, and provides several useful links.
Taxing Issues: Responsible business and tax. Paper written by Richard Murphy and Sustainability on tax and corporate responsibility. 2006.
Trade and transfer pricing (and mispricing). See TJN's Transfer Pricing page. See also Unitary Taxation and Formulary apportionment, below. A new TJN project on transfer pricing was launched in June 2009. See layman's guide, Tricky Tax . This March 2009 Christian Aid report estimates $1.1 trillion in bilateral trade mispricing into the EU and the US alone from non-EU countries from 2005 to 2007. For the Tax Research archive, click here, or see this video which explains the basic principles. See also this Guardian investigation into the banana trade, with extra article here and simple interactive guide here. See also this Financial Times investigation from 2004, and this seminal academic work from Simon Pak, on Russia-USA trade (2004) and on Africa-US trade (2006). There are also OECD guidelines on arm's length pricing and a November 2007 report to the US congress on earnings stripping and transfer pricing.
Treuhand. See this 2010 blog , and assorted links. See also trusts, below.
Trusts. For an overview of how trusts are used to create secrecy and a shield from tax, click this July 2009 TJN primer. For the Tax Research blog archive, click here. See also Treuhand, above.
United Kingdom. See Tax Gap, above. See also this glossary for the UK budget, prepared by KPMG for the Financial Times. See also London is a tax haven, above.
Unitary Taxation and formulary apportionment. Also known as combined reporting (with formulary apportionment.) Also see Transfer Pricing, above. See this in-depth 2004 paper by Mike McIntyre in Tax Notes International, his shorter piece in December 2009, and TJN's brief paper from September 2007 in response to a UK government consultation and discussion document on foreign profits and transfer pricing. See also this short blog which distils the essential highlights from the TJN paper. The Brookings Institution in Washington also produced this proposal for formulary apportionment (unitary taxation, aimed at a U.S. audience but with global relevance.( A brief explanation of basic principles is here.) Another paper, written with Europe in mind but also with global relevance, can be found here: The US Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy also wrote a short primer on the relevance of these issues inside the U.S.
United Nations Tax Committee a presentation by TJN'S David Spencer on how developing nations can mobilise domestic resources. Sept 2007. See also this blog about its October 2008 meeting.
United States. Citizens for Tax Justice is a long established public interest research and advocacy organisation, focusing on U.S. Federal, state and local tax policies. CTJ publishes regular bulletins and updates in its CTJ Digest, and is linked to TJN-International. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) also has state-by-state tax news and analysis here. This November 2009 ITEP study looks comprehensively at U.S. state tax systems. On U.S. corporation taxes, see CTJ's Corporate Income Taxes in the Bush Years, and ITEP's Corporate Income Taxes in the 1990s . The US-based TaxAnalysts, a non-profit publisher, provides high level tax analysis and information relevant to the U.S. (and other jurisdictions.) TJN-USA does not currently have a web site, but this will change.
Will the Crown Dependencies be EU tax compliant? A paper presented at Sussex and Essex Universities in May and July 2005 arguing that Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man will not meet the EU Code of Conduct on Business Taxation.

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