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1. What Do They Pay? Towards a Public Database to Account for the Economic Activities and Tax Contributions of Multinational Corporation

Author:
Alex Cobham, Jonathan Gray, and Richard Murphy
Publication Date:
02-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
City Political Economy Research Centre (CITYPERC), University of London
Abstract:
This paper reviews the prospects for a global public database on the tax contributions and economic activities of multinational companies. It is divided into four main sections. Firstly, we present a set of user stories, questions, requirements, and scenarios of usage for a database. Secondly, we look at what kinds of information a public database could and should contain. Thirdly, we look at the opportunities and challenges of building a public database drawing on various existing information sources. Fourthly and finally, we suggest next steps for policy, advocacy, and technical work towards a public database.
Topic:
Economics, Multinational Corporations, and Corporate Tax
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. The Financial Secrecy Index: Shedding New Light on the Geography of Secrecy

Author:
Markus Meinzer, Petr Janský, and Alex Cobham
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Both academic research and public policy debate around tax havens and offshore finance typically suffer from a lack of definitional consistency. Unsurprisingly then, there is little agreement about which jurisdictions ought to be considered as tax havens—or which policy measures would result in their not being so considered. In this article we explore and make operational an alternative concept, that of a secrecy jurisdiction and present the findings of the resulting Financial Secrecy Index (FSI). The FSI ranks countries and jurisdictions according to their contribution to opacity in global financial flows, revealing a quite different geography of financial secrecy from the image of small island tax havens that may still dominate popular perceptions and some of the literature on offshore finance. Some major (secrecy-supplying) economies now come into focus. Instead of a binary division between tax havens and others, the results show a secrecy spectrum, on which all jurisdictions can be situated, and that adjustment for the scale of business is necessary in order to compare impact propensity. This approach has the potential to support more precise and granular research findings and policy recommendations.