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Dirty Secrets: How Tax Havens Destroy the Economy
The Panama Papers demonstrated that the superrich hide their wealth from the rest of us. Dirty Secrets shows that this was not by accident, but by design. It was the result of a powerful alliance of the wealthy, their advisers and the state that has undermined all attempts to solve the tax haven problem.This is because tax havens are the unacknowledged heart of globalized capitalism. Their purpose is to provide freedom from regulation. The exponents say this makes markets work and so we all gain. But this argument has now failed. Furthermore democracy itself is being threatened by the political fallout from the mistrust this regime has created.The result is that tax havens are now a threat to the very system that supposedly spawned it. Dirty Secrets is the most revelatory examination of the crisis by a leading expert, but also offers solutions on how governments can regulate havens and what the world might look like without them.
198 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 7, 2017
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About the author
Richard Murphy
7 books25 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Richard Murphy is an English accountant and political economist who campaigns on issues of tax avoidance, tax evasion and government. He advises the Trades Union Congress on economics and taxation, and founded the Tax Justice Network. He is a Professor of Accounting Practice at University of Sheffield Management School.
Richard Murphy is an English accountant and political economist who campaigns on issues of tax avoidance, tax evasion and government. He advises the Trades Union Congress on economics and taxation, and founded the Tax Justice Network. He is a Professor of Accounting Practice at University of Sheffield Management School.
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July 29, 2017
Do you know anybody who claims not to pay taxes? Who brags about not paying taxes? Who says that not paying taxes shows how smart he is?
Ensuring that citizens and corporations pay their legally determined taxes should be a non-partisan issue. And yet, citizens, corporations, and crime organizations around the world have succeeded in hiding an estimated $7.6 *trillion* (or 8% of the world's economy) from taxation. According to Murphy, tax havens have three goals: “to undermine the rule of law, to prevent democratically elected governments from delivering the policies that their electorate might expect, and to increase the concentration of both income and wealth.”
U.S. citizens who avoid taxes do not support our highway infrastructure, they do not support our police and fire departments, they do not support our military. They do nothing to support our country. They are not patriots, and certainly should have no say in how our government is run. But until citizens start insisting on international banking regulations to reign in these criminal or quasi-criminal activities, tax avoidance will only increase, placing heavier demands on those who do pay taxes. And those who do pay taxes will become increasingly frustrated that their government is still short of doing the things it promises its citizens it will do.
And not all tax havens are offshore. The State of Delaware, for instance, claims to be home to over one million corporations, yet has fewer than one million residents. Montana and Wyoming are also tax havens.
Murphy is a British chartered accountant who specializes in taxation and who was co-founder of the Tax Justice Network, which works to establish international rules to curtail tax avoidance. The work is slow, and governments resistant. Perhaps with wider recognition of the problem, the success of such organizations as the TJN will increase.
Ensuring that citizens and corporations pay their legally determined taxes should be a non-partisan issue. And yet, citizens, corporations, and crime organizations around the world have succeeded in hiding an estimated $7.6 *trillion* (or 8% of the world's economy) from taxation. According to Murphy, tax havens have three goals: “to undermine the rule of law, to prevent democratically elected governments from delivering the policies that their electorate might expect, and to increase the concentration of both income and wealth.”
U.S. citizens who avoid taxes do not support our highway infrastructure, they do not support our police and fire departments, they do not support our military. They do nothing to support our country. They are not patriots, and certainly should have no say in how our government is run. But until citizens start insisting on international banking regulations to reign in these criminal or quasi-criminal activities, tax avoidance will only increase, placing heavier demands on those who do pay taxes. And those who do pay taxes will become increasingly frustrated that their government is still short of doing the things it promises its citizens it will do.
And not all tax havens are offshore. The State of Delaware, for instance, claims to be home to over one million corporations, yet has fewer than one million residents. Montana and Wyoming are also tax havens.
Murphy is a British chartered accountant who specializes in taxation and who was co-founder of the Tax Justice Network, which works to establish international rules to curtail tax avoidance. The work is slow, and governments resistant. Perhaps with wider recognition of the problem, the success of such organizations as the TJN will increase.
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