New research shows that companies are shifting record amounts of their profits to tax havens, despite a global effort to crack down on the practice.
Enforcing punishments on proven tax cheats could provide benefits beyond improving compliance to tax laws. Once offenders pay up, billions lost to offshore scandals could be recouped and the tax burden more fairly shared among taxpayers.
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Research suggests punishing tax cheats can re-establish a sense of justice among the general public, so authorities should use their resources to ensure culpable offenders are held accountable.
Marc Tassé, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Highly compensated ‘enablers’ such as financial experts, lawyers, accountants, notaries, estate agents and company service providers are assisting oligarchs, dictators and criminals around the world.
Roman Lanis, University of Technology Sydney and Peter Wells, University of Technology Sydney
Juicy stories of political leaders stashing loot overseas make good headlines. But the real story is the need for systemic solutions, especially on property rights and transparency.
Why the super-rich are targeting the Mount Rushmore state.
Dean Alberga/Handout/World Archery Federation via Getty Images
Not all people in banks are unethical, but banking attracts unethical people.
The Panama Papers was the biggest-ever collaboration for investigative journalism, involving 400 journalists in 80 countries who collectively produced 6,000 stories in 100 different media outlets.
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Media Files: investigative journalist Bastian Obermayer, who led the Panama Papers tax exposé.
The Conversation, CC BY80.6 MB(download)
Today we meet Bastian Obermayer, the Pulitizer prize-winning journalist who led the Panama Papers investigation into global tax evasion.
Glencore’s lawyers argued anything about the company in the Paradise Papers was “privileged” and the tax office should be prevented from using that information.
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Instead of taking pride in how quickly they cover the same stories as everyone else, these organizations make public service journalism their top priority.
Corruption is as old as human history.
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Established media organisations are collaborating across borders and with new media to break big stories such as global tax avoidance by the rich and powerful.
The first strategy is to require the public disclosure of country by country reporting of company tax affairs.
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