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Every year, the world loses 311 billion dollars to tax avoidance by large corporations. Australia has taken steps to address this issue, and now we hope Norway will follow suit!
Tax avoidance and the use of tax havens have never been higher. However, we still have no way of seeing whether individual companies are paying sufficient taxes in the countries where they operate economically. This makes it difficult to tackle the problem.
Behind the somewhat technical term "country-by-country reporting" lies an idea that could fundamentally change the international tax system. By demanding greater transparency, we can pave the way for a better method of taxing large corporations. This is currently being worked on in Australia.
In this episode of Pengeland, we are joined by Jason Ward, the chief analyst at the organization CICTAR. He has been a leading figure in the effort to promote greater transparency in corporate tax payments in Australia. We talk with him about tax avoidance as a global issue, the work that has been done in Australia, and how Norway can follow suit
Hosts: Jonas Veland and Kaja Guttormsgaard
Guest: Jason Ward
Audio, video, and music: Kristoffer Lislegaard -
Can we combat poverty without economic growth?
In this episode, we talk with Olivier de Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. His latest report addresses this very issue. How can we continue to fund education, health, and welfare while considering the planet's limitations? And what role will taxes and tax system reforms play in a growth-free future?
Hosts: Jonas Veland and Kaja Guttormsgaard
Sound, video, and music: Kristoffer Lislegaard -
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Alex Cobham was in Oslo in December to discuss his latest book "What Do We Know and What Should We Do About Tax Justice?". Together with Cobham, we explore the history and possibilities of tax justice. We delve into the development and influence of the tax justice movement in connection with the Tax Justice Network's 20th anniversary. How has this movement shaped today's tax systems and transparency measures? And most importantly, what can we learn from the past to create a fairer and more sustainable economic policy for the future?
This episode provides a unique insight into the complex world of tax justice, seen through the eyes of one of the leading experts in the field. You can expect an insightful conversation that not only sheds light on the challenges but also the opportunities that lie ahead in the fight for a more equitable economy.
Hosts: Jonas Veland and Ingrid Hjertaker
Sound, video, and music: Kristoffer Lislegaard -
How is it that the world's most powerful country has become the best place to hide money?
Last year, the latest edition of the Financial Secrecy Index, a ranking by the Tax Justice Network of the world's best countries for hiding money, was released. The United States was in first place, thus being called the world's largest tax haven for the first time. But why is that, really? The country is neither a small island state like the Cayman Islands nor a giant bank vault like Switzerland.
In this interview from another episode of Pengeland, we are visited by Lukas Hakelberg, who is a postdoctoral researcher at the Free University of Berlin. He has written the book 'The Hypocritical Hegemon', which explains just this.
The United States is the world's most powerful country, has the world's largest financial market, and has the greatest influence in international processes, such as in the OECD. At the same time, the US Congress is dominated by a super strong financial lobby, which means that even ambitious presidential administrations do not get their policies passed. Lukas explains how this has led to the United States emerging as the best place in the world to hide money, while through the OECD, it has put obstacles in the way for countries that want to follow suit. Thus, the world's most powerful country is now the world's largest tax haven.
'The Hypocritical Hegemon' is available in Open Access here: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501748035/the-hypocritical-hegemon/#bookTabs=1
Hosts: Jonas Veland and Ingrid Hjertaker
Sound, video, and music: Kristoffer Lislegaard -
Tax havens have perfected the art of offering services that bypass laws and regulations in other countries. The lack of transparency regarding the ownership of shell companies and trusts, and what goes on within them, has made tax havens a useful tool for everything from tax evasion to corruption, money laundering, and terrorist financing.
The demand for greater transparency in ownership within tax havens has therefore been at the core of efforts by governments and civil society organizations to combat these harmful activities – a battle in which transparency advocates seemed to be constantly winning new victories, and where greater openness was being pushed through in more and more countries. But in November of last year, things took a turn.
After several years of continuous progress in establishing public registries of the actual owners of a company, a ruling from the EU Court of Justice last year was described as a massive setback in the fight for transparency.
This interview is an exerpt from an episode of the Norwegian podcast “Pengeland”. In this interview we speak with Maira Martini, who will provide us with a deeper understanding of this issue. She leads the work on transparency solutions at the global secretariat of Transparency International and is among the leading experts in Europe in her field.
The hosts for this episode are Peter Ringstad and Julie Brun Bjørkheim.
Mixing and music by Kristoffer Lislegaard. -
Many associate South Africa with an inspiring story of the fight against apartheid, whichhad a happy ending when Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerkreceived theNobel Peace Prize in 1993.
But history never ends. In this episode of Taxcast Norway, we will hear how South Africa – under former president Jacob Zuma – became so permeated with corruption that agovernment – appointed commission referred to the country as a captured state. This hashad disastrous consequences for the country's development.
The guest in this episode is Michael Marchant, who is head of investigations in the SouthAfrican organization Open Secrets. Through a series of articles andreports, they haveuncovered how Zuma and powerful elites systematically attacked state institutions thatcould expose and stop their corruption.
Through media revelations and popular opposition, the pressure on Zuma was so great thathe was forced to resign. What’s next, for the once hopeful country?
The episode was recorded on November 16.
Presenters: Peter Ringstad and Ingrid Hjertaker
Audio production and music: Kristoffer Lislegaard
Episode notes:
Open Secrets website: https://www.opensecrets.org.za/
Link to the report «Wanted: The State Capture Conspirators»:https://www.opensecrets.org.za/wanted-the-conspirators/
The website of «The judicial commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture, corruption and fraud in the public sector» https://www.statecapture.org.za -
According to a new report, African countries are drained of more than 10 billion US dollarsannually, as a result of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Countries in South America and Southeast Asia are also affected. In most cases, the fishing is carried out by large commercial fishing companies, where the ownership of the fishing boats is hidden through layers of tax haven companies, as well as ship registration in so-called flags of convenience. This activity not only robs the states of much-needed tax revenue, but also contributes to overfishing which destroys fish stocks and affects communities who depend on traditional coastal fishing.
In this episode, we talk to the main author of the report "Fishy Networks", Alfonso Daniels from the Financial Transparency Coalition. He explains the economic, human and environmental consequences of illegal fishing taking place on an industrial scale.
This episode is presented in collaboration with TaxCapDev – a research dissemination collaboration coordinated by the Chr. Michelsen Institute, NUPI and Tax Justice Norway.
The episode was recorded on November 15.
Presenters: Peter Ringstad and Ingrid Hjertaker
Audio production and music: Kristoffer Lislegaard
Episode notes:
The report can be downloaded here: https://financialtransparency.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/FTC-fishy-Network-OCT-2022-Final.pdf
Financial Transparency Coalition website: https://financialtransparency.org/ -
In this episode of TaxCast Norway we talk to professor Kanchana Ruwanpura from the University of Gothenburg about the situation in Sri Lanka.
This is an excerpt from a longer episode in Norwegian: https://www.spreaker.com/user/taxcastnorge/20220427a-sri-lanka-5-norsk
The episode was recorded 27.04.2022.
Guest:
- Professor Kanchana Ruwanpura - University of Gothenburg
Hosts:
- Peter Ringstad, advisor at Tax Justice Norway
- Ingrid Hjertaker, PhD at Høyskolen Innlandet, researching central bank policies
Production and music: Kristoffer Lislegaard -
In this episode of TaxCast Norway we talk to Martin Hearson from the International Centre for Tax and Development about tax treaties and try to answer why developing countries, who seemingly only limit their ability to tax foreign multinationals through tax treaties with rich countries, still have signed thousands of them.
Guest:
- Martin Hearson, author of «Imposing Standards, The North-South Dimension to Global Tax Politics». Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, and International Tax Programme Lead for the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD).
Hosts:
- Peter Ringstad and Julie Kristine Wood, Tax Justice Network - Norway
Production and music:
- Kristoffer Lislegaard. -
It has long been known that the powerful Kenyatta family holds a great deal of wealth within Kenyas’ borders. The global document leak #PandoraPapers has recently disclosed that Kenya’s sitting president and his family also have wealth stashed away abroad. This has led to public outcry in the country.
Guest:
- Francis Kairu, Policy Advisor, Tax Justice Network - Africa
Hosts:
- Peter Ringstad, Tax Justice Network – Norway
- Kristoffer Lislegaard
Production and music: Kristoffer Lislegaard
This episode is produced as part of the TaxCapDev collaboration between Tax Justice Network – Norway, NUPI and CMI. -
Just days before she was appointed as the Biden-administration head of Office for Tax Analysis at the US Treasury, a conversation between Kimberly Clausing and Alex Cobham and our hosts Peter Ringstad and Ingrid Hjertaker about the art of estimating profit shifting to tax havens, and a plan for pragmatic tax reform for the US.
Papers discussed in this interview:
- Kimberly Clausing: Five Lessons on Profit Shifting from the U.S. Country by Country Data
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3736287
- The State of Tax Justice 2020: https://www.taxjustice.net/reports/the-state-of-tax-justice-2020/
Guests:
- Kimberly Clausing, Deputy Assistant Secretary, US Treasury; Economist and Professor.
- Alex Cobham, Chief Executive Director, Tax Justice Network, Economist
Hosts:
- Peter Ringstad, advisor at Tax Justice Network - Norway
- Ingrid Hjertaker, PhD at Høyskolen Innlandet, researching central bank policies
Production and music: Kristoffer Lislegaard
