The Taxcast

In this episode Taxcast host Naomi Fowler investigates the phenomenon of pop-up sweet shops on Oxford Street and the missing millions in taxes owed. The trail leads to the disgrace that is the UK's company registration process, making the UK Crime Central for any crook who comes along. It's not just the UK that exposes its citizens to risks, it hurts people across the world too. Transcript of the show is available here: ...

Annual shareholder’s meetings used to be pretty staid and boring affairs. But, as inequality has boomed along with corporate profits, AGMs are becoming sites of protest. In this episode Naomi Fowler speaks to Katie Hepworth of PIRC and Jason Ward of CICTAR about the recent challenge to Amazon on tax transparency from shareholders. How did the challenge unfold and what was the result? What does it tell us about progress on principles that as societies are increasingly important to us? A...

Which nations are the world's biggest financial secrecy offenders? And what does it tell us about the world, about politics and about democracy? How high does your country rank in facilitating global corruption? In this episode Taxcast host Naomi Fowler explores the shocking results of the Tax Justice Network's Financial Secrecy Index 2022. Guests: Alex Cobham, head of the Tax Justice Network Ryan Gurule, of the FACT Coalition Read all about the Financial Secrecy Index here:...

On the Taxcast we ask - do politicians believe in the societies they serve or not? Are they really a part of them, or do they live in a parallel world with different rules to ordinary people? The so-called 'NonDom' scandal goes all the way to Downing Street, the heart of the British government and the UK Chancellor/Finance Minister whose wife is taking advantage of an archaic tax status that leads to reduced taxes on her inherited fortune - just as her husband raises taxes on everyone...

In this episode of the Taxcast, Naomi Fowler speaks with journalist and anti-corruption campaigner Oliver Bullough about his new book ‘Butler to the World: how Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals.’ "You cannot have unquestioning acceptance of the wealthy AND democracy. You can't treat everyone the same before the law AND give rich people anything they want, because rich people want to have immunity from the law. Do you want democracy, or do you want...

In this episode we bring you the story of a pensioner robbed of his dream retirement and his fight for justice in multiple jurisidctions. Tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions don't just hurt us because they're places of impunity for the rich and for criminals. Quite ordinary people can get caught up in them too. And when thngs go bad, it becomes clear how toxic these places are, and that you may not get the help from regulators and law enforcement that you really need. Plus, we share the...

In the first Taxcast for 2022, Naomi Fowler talks with tax justice and anti-corruption campaigners and experts in Europe, Africa, the US and Latin America. What are our hopes and fears for 2022? And what should we be looking out for? The transcript of the show is available here: https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/The-Taxcast-Jan-22-Transcript.pdf Further information: Paper questioning the legal validity of the IMF’s Stand-By Arrangement with Argentina by Kariina Patricio...

In edition 117 we take you to the tax haven of Jersey off the coast of France and the intruiging story of the discovery of 333 boxes of incriminating evidence of fraud. Those boxes have revealed some ugly truths about this small island tax haven that affect us all. The transcript is available here (some is automated and may not be 100% accurate): https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-Taxcast_transcript_edition-117.pdf You can hear the Taxcast edition on rising inequality...

In this episode: Ireland only has 0.1% of the world’s population, but they became one of the biggest tax havens on the planet. What’s that meant for Irish people, and their road ahead? Naomi Fowler speaks with authors of a new book Tax Haven Ireland. There's a special deal for Taxcast listeners for the paperback or the ebook version, wherever you are in the world. Go to the publisher’s website, PLuto Books: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745345314/tax-haven-ireland/ and enter the code...

In this episode Taxcast host Naomi Fowler discusses degrowth, rethinking economies and value in part 2 of her conversation with economic anthropologist Jason Hickel. Plus: the Pandora Papers - 3 things the latest offshore leak is showing us. Why some countries rejected the OECD's 15% minimum global corporate tax deal And, as COP26 begins in Scotland, it's the 'last chance saloon' to take meaningful action to minimise ecological disaster - can politicians learn from nations leading the way...

In this episode, Naomi Fowler explores degrowth and how we liberate ourselves from ‘growthism’ with economic anthropologist Jason Hickel. (The full converation will be released soon as a Taxcast Extra, the full thing is too good to miss!) Plus: there can be no liberation without tackling monopoly power, or the role of finance sectors and States, investing in death and destruction across the world. Here's our website with more Taxcasts: https://www.thetaxcast.com The transcript is...

This month Naomi Fowler speaks with Paul Caruana Galizia, one of the sons of Malta’s incredible investigative journalist and anti-corruption champion Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was assassinated in 2017. Paul Caruana Galizia discusses his mother's legacy, the capture of Malta through an aggressive, over-sized finance sector with financial secrecy at its heart, and his hopes for the future. The transcript is available here: ...

We’ve had the honour before on the Taxcast of speaking with law Professor Dorothy Brown in Part 1 of the Whiteness of Wealth Taxcast Extra. She’s been doing trailblazing work on systemic racism and tax justice in the United States for many years. She’s author of the seminal book ‘The Whiteness of Wealth: how the US tax system impoverishes black Americans – and how we can fix it’. In this Taxcast Extra, you can hear Professor Brown’s keynote speech which she gave to the Tax Justice...

This month Taxcast host Naomi Fowler talks to millionaire and wealth tax campaigner Djaffar Shalchi of Millionaires for Humanity about his experience of moving from Iran at an early age to grow up in Denmark, and how highly he values the high tax Scandinavian society, as an entrepreneur, and as a human being. He also talks about his campaign for a 1% wealth tax on the world’s top 1%. Plus: US President Biden drops his proposal for a minimum global corporate tax rate from 21% to 'at least...

In this Taxcast Extra Naomi Fowler speaks to Jim Henry, economist, lawyer, investigative journalist and Tax Justice Network senior advisor about the campaign to persuade New York State (which is broke) to reinstate its (tiny) Stock Transfer Tax. It would have created an important precedent for the world but for now, Wall Street has escaped. At the same time, in Hong Kong they have raised their Stock Transfer Tax in an example of “tax competition in reverse,“ or a “race to the top.” The...

Caring for others is the highest thing anyone can do in this world. Yet our governments don’t value care either in the policies they create, and they don’t value it monetarily. We look at how we move from an un-caring economy to a caring economy, how women's unpaid work is the greatest subsidy to our so-called productive economy, and how we need to rethink 'the economic.' Plus - we analyse President Biden's global minimum tax plans - who wins and who loses? Is it game over for tax...

Law Professor Dorothy Brown speaks with political economist Keval Bharadia and Taxcast host and producer Naomi Fowler about her book just released in the United States called: ‘The Whiteness of Wealth: how the US tax system impoverishes black Americans – and how we can fix it.’ Transcript with additional links to further reading: https://www.taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/TaxcastExtraScript0421.pdf The Taxcast website: https://www.thetaxcast.com

Much of the world is run on the basis of economic theories that have become accepted truths of our era. But they actually have very little evidence to back them up. This month, Naomi Fowler speaks to finance journalist and writer Tom Bergin on how economics ruins economies and puts economists in the dock. The details of Tom's book, Free Lunch Thinking: how economics ruins the economy is available here: ...

In this month's episode: we know the world’s broken. Apparently we need $9 trillion to fix it. We find out how we can pay for the pandemic and a just transition with Ben Tippet of the Transnational Institute. Plus: Casino Capitalism: what really happened with the Gamestop frenzy and what does it tell us about 'investment?' You can read the Transnational Institute report here: https://longreads.tni.org/paying-for-just-transition Transcript of the show available here: ...

This month Naomi Fowler speaks to activist and writer Ben Phillips about how past struggles for justice were won and how we can win them again. We discuss valuable lessons he learned from living and working around the world which he writes about in his book How To Fight Inequality and why that fight needs you. https://uk.bookshop.org/books/how-to-fight-inequality-and-why-that-fight-needs-you/9781509543090 Plus: Why is the Chinese economy so successful? Naomi discusses with John...