I’m in Singapore for two days to help fight the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a statist international bureaucracy based in Paris. The OECD has something called a global tax forum, the purpose of which is to harass so-called tax haven in hopes of coercing them into acting as tax collectors for Europe’s decrepit welfare states. Here’s the executive summary from the memo I wrote, which warns low-tax jurisdictions that the OECD may push even harder to undermine fiscal sovereignty because of fears that a GOP takeover of Congress will make it more difficult to push for tax harmonization policies in the future.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has an ongoing project to prop up Europe’s inefficient welfare states by attacking tax competition in hopes of enabling governments to impose heavier tax burdens. This project received a boost when the Obama Administration joined forces with countries such as France and Germany, but the tide is now turning against high-tax nations – particularly as more people understand that such an approach inevitably leads to Greek-style fiscal collapse. Looming political changes in the United States will further complicate the OECD’s ability to impose bad policy. Because of these developments, low-tax jurisdictions should be especially wary of schemes to rush through new anti-tax competition initiatives at the Singapore Global Forum.
The good news is that nothing dramatic took place on the first day of the two-day conference. the OECD continued to bully low-tax jurisdictions to sign information-sharing agreements and the low-tax jurisdictions kept asking for double-taxation agreements so they could get some benefit in exchange for weakening their human rights/financial privacy laws. The OECD and high-tax nations have been ignoring these requests for a two-way street, thus continuing their bad-faith behavior.
For more information on this issue, here’s a link to my video on tax competition, and here are a handful of TV appearances where I discuss the issue. This is a challenging issue to debate, so I’d welcome feedback on which arguments you think are most effective.
[…] jurisdictions and the service providers in those jurisdictions. And I’ll defend them (here, here, here, here, and here) even if it means a bunch of international bureaucrats threaten to toss me in […]
[…] I’ve done lots of debates about tax havens (on American TV, British TV, and French TV) and those of you attending FreedomFest can see me cross rhetorical […]
[…] P.S. If you have a burning desire to watch me debate tax havens, you can see me cross swords with a bunch of different statists by clicking here. […]
[…] that proves the rule. International treaties usually are bad because they are vehicles for governments to engage in cartel-like behavior. The Paris-based OECD’s so-called Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance […]
[…] is mostly an issue in the world of international tax policy, but the same principles apply for sub-national governments inside a […]
[…] is mostly an issue in the world of international tax policy, but the same principles apply for sub-national governments inside a […]
[…] opponents in this battle are high-tax governments, statist international bureaucracies such as the Organization for Economic […]
[…] opponents in this battle are high-tax governments, statist international bureaucracies such as the Organisation for Economic […]
[…] opponents in this battle are high-tax governments, statist international bureaucracies such as the Organization for Economic […]
[…] opponents in this battle are high-tax governments, statist international bureaucracies such as the Organization for Economic […]
[…] the world’s self-appointed defender of so-called tax havens has led to some rather bizarre […]
[…] the world’s self-appointed defender of so-called tax havens has led to some rather bizarre […]
[…] Tax Havens Are A Force For Good Djordje Teofilovic | September 04, 2011, 10:57 PM Being the world’s self-appointed defender of so-called tax havens has led to some rather bizarre […]
[…] the world’s self-appointed defender of so-called tax havens has led to some rather bizarre […]
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Heckuva good job. I sure arppiecate it.
[…] their ability to collect tax revenue and buy votes. Indeed, this is why I spend so much of my time fighting to preserve tax competition (even if it means the possibility of getting thrown in a Mexican jail). If the crooks in Washington […]
[…] Atlantic don’t like tax competition? But rather than openly argue for tax harmonization and other policies that would lead to higher taxes and a loss of fiscal sovereignty, they think they will have more luck expanding the power of government by employing demagoguery […]
[…] don’t like tax competition? But rather than openly argue for tax harmonization and other policies that would lead to higher taxes and a loss of fiscal sovereignty, they think they will have more luck expanding the power of government by employing demagoguery […]
[…] Atlantic don’t like tax competition? But rather than openly argue for tax harmonization and other policies that would lead to higher taxes and a loss of fiscal sovereignty, they think they will have more luck expanding the power of government by employing demagoguery […]
[…] 14, 2010 by Dan Mitchell Regular readers know that I am a tireless advocate for tax competition, which exists when governments are encouraged to adopt better tax policy in order to attract/retain […]
[…] 14, 2010 by Dan Mitchell Regular readers know that I am a tireless advocate for tax competition, which exists when governments are encouraged to adopt better tax policy in order to attract/retain […]
[…] Which one is your favorite? I’m partial to the last one because of my interest in tax competition. […]
[…] Which one is your favorite? I’m partial to the last one because of my interest in tax competition. […]
[…] Which one is your favorite? I’m partial to the last one because of my interest in tax competition. […]
[…] Which one is your favorite? I’m partial to the last one because of my interest in tax competition. […]
The amazing thing about the arguments are that they are all ahistorical. What about talking about the historical context. I understand this risks running into Godwin’s law, but history is history. Switzerland’s tradition of financial privacy was a key element in allowing many people to keep some of their wealth when, in the early half of the 20th century, governments were “cracking down” on tax evaders. But if all the escape valves are sealed, all governments become confiscatory in their approach to the wealth of their citizens. It happened in the early 20th century, and it will happen again in the early 21th century if the right of financial secrecy is lost.