Doubling Down on Tax Competition and Secrecy: Launch of two new reports + event video

The EU Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation held a panel event on “Doubling Down on Tax Competition and Secrecy” to launch two papers.

• Click here to view the conference video: https://youtu.be/L0Rc8qnwcXc
  
• The second report of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT http://www.icrict.org/)

• A Report by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Mark Pieth on “Overcoming the Shadow Economy”, following their withdrawal from the Panama Commission (http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/12922.pdf).

In the wake of the G20/OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting proposals for tax reform, countries are grappling with the question of how to enhance their cooperation to tackle deep-seated problems in international corporate taxation. These problems include tax competition between countries, both in terms of the erosion of corporate tax base and rates, which risks undermining progress on tax reform to date. In addition, the revelations of the Luxembourg Leaks and the Panama Papers illustrate that globally, secrecy is a problem: it facilitates both money laundering and tax avoidance and evasion, contributing to crime and unacceptably high levels of global wealth inequality.
The launch addressed representatives of the European Commission, European Parliament and EU Member States as well as civil society representatives.
Confirmed speaker included:

• Joseph Stiglitz, Professor at Colombia University,

• José Antonio Ocampo, Professor at Columbia University and ICRICT Chair

• Magdalena Sepúlveda, Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD),

• Edmund Fitzgerald, Professor at Oxford University,

• Eva Joly, MEP, Vice-Chair of the Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion

• Fabio de Masi, MEP, Vice-Chair of the Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion