The Joy Of Tax

'A brief but crucially important book' Marcus Chown In The Joy of Tax, tax campaigner Richard Murphy challenges almost every idea you have about tax. For him, tax is fundamentally about the ideas that shape the sort of society we want to live in, not technicalities. His intention is to demonstrate that there is indeed a joy in tax, and by embracing it we can create a fairer society and change the world for the better. Tax has been a feature of human society for a very long time. Almost no one gives tax a good press even though, as Richard Murphy argues, it has been fundamental to the development of democracy the world over. Whilst we may not like tax very much, in contrast it is clear that we really do like the public services which governments provide. So much so, in fact, that for most of the last 300 years, people have been more than happy for governments to run deficits by spending more than they raise in taxation. 2008 apparently changed all that. The issues of debt, deficits, cuts and austerity have dominated the political agenda ever since. Virtually every aspect of the government's finances and how to rearrange them in the forlorn hope of balancing the books has been discussed in great detail. Despite that, there has been almost no real discussion during this period about what tax is for and how it contributes to the creation of the society we aspire to.

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.

Series on International Taxation #81 The tax landscape today looks dramatically different from how it appeared even a generation ago. Ongoing sweeping changes in information technologies, massive economic downturns, unforeseen catastrophes such as the global pandemic that hit the world in 2020, and ever more sophisticated methods of tax evasion and avoidance are only some of the factors that have perplexed and even confounded tax authorities. This important book provides a comprehensive overview of the global tax challenges confronting tax policy today, with insightful contributions by both well-known tax experts and fresh new voices in the field. The authors address such critical issues as the following: international tax reform initiatives; effects of climate change; tax justice in times of crisis; international tax cooperation; taxing multinationals; role of tax havens; participation and collaboration of developing countries; the growing presence of artificial intelligence and robots; prospects for a green economic recovery; and tax ethics and social inclusiveness. The contributions originated with the groundbreaking tax summit TaxCOOP2020, held online at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in October 2020. At a time when tax policy seems poised at the dawn of a fundamental transformation, this inestimable volume will be welcomed by tax practitioners and academics, concerned government officials, businesspeople, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), all of whom will here have access to a variety of points of view and innovative approaches to the future direction of taxation.

The bicycle is fast becoming a ubiquitous form of transportation in cities all over the world, making our urban spaces more efficient, more livable and healthier. But many of those bicycles disappear into basements and garages when the warm months end, parked there by owners fearful of the cold, snow and ice that winter brings. But does it have to be that way? Canadian writer and journalist Tom Babin started questioning this dogma after being stuck in winter commuter traffic one dreary and cold December morning and dreaming about the happiness that bicycle commuting had brought him all summer long. So he did something about it. He pulled on some thermal underwear, dragged his bike down from the rafters of his garage and set out on a mission to answer a simple but beguiling question: is it possible to happily ride a bike in winter? That question took him places he never expected. Over years of trial and error, research and more than his share of snow and ice, he discovered an unknown history of biking for snow and ice, and a new generation designed to make riding in winter safe and fun. He unearthed the world's most bike-friendly winter city and some new approaches to winter cycling from places all over the world. He also looked inward, to discover how the modern world shapes our attitudes toward winter. And perhaps most importantly, he discovered the unique kind of bliss that can only come by pedalling through softly falling snow on a quiet winter night.

What we count matters - and in a world where policies and decisions are underpinned by numbers, statistics and data, if you’re not counted, you don’t count. Alex Cobham argues that systematic gaps in economic and demographic data not only lead us to understate a wide range of damaging inequalities, but also to actively exacerbate them. He shows how, in statistics ranging from electoral registers to household surveys and census data, people from disadvantaged groups, such as indigenous populations, women, and disabled people, are consistently underrepresented. This further marginalizes them, reducing everything from their political power to their weight in public spending decisions. Meanwhile, corporations and the ultra-rich seek ever greater complexity and opacity in their financial affairs - and when their wealth goes untallied, it means they can avoid regulation and taxation. This brilliantly researched book shows how what we do and don’t count is not a neutral or ‘technical’ question: the numbers that rule our world are skewed by raw politics. Cobham forensically lays bare how these issues strike at the heart of our democracy, entrenching inequality and injustice – and outlines what we can do about it.

A groundbreaking history of why governments do—and don't—tax the rich In today's social climate of acknowledged and growing inequality, why are there not greater efforts to tax the rich? In this wide-ranging and provocative book, Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage ask when and why countries tax their wealthiest citizens—and their answers may surprise you. Taxing the Rich draws on unparalleled evidence from twenty countries over the last two centuries to provide the broadest and most in-depth history of progressive taxation available. Scheve and Stasavage explore the intellectual and political debates surrounding the taxation of the wealthy while also providing the most detailed examination to date of when taxes have been levied against the rich and when they haven't. Fairness in debates about taxing the rich has depended on different views of what it means to treat people as equals and whether taxing the rich advances or undermines this norm. Scheve and Stasavage argue that governments don't tax the rich just because inequality is high or rising—they do it when people believe that such taxes compensate for the state unfairly privileging the wealthy. Progressive taxation saw its heyday in the twentieth century, when compensatory arguments for taxing the rich focused on unequal sacrifice in mass warfare. Today, as technology gives rise to wars of more limited mobilization, such arguments are no longer persuasive. Taxing the Rich shows how the future of tax reform will depend on whether political and economic conditions allow for new compensatory arguments to be made.

You’ve taken the pregnancy tests, made the big announcement and you’ve probably caught a glimpse of your baby on a sonogram. Congratulations! You’ve got a bundle of joy on the way and the one thing you’re probably not prepared for is the bundle of money it’s going to cost to raise that little one. In Babies: How to Afford Your Bundle of Joy, writer Lisa van de Geyn leans on financial experts to help parents save a few dollars and get the most bang for their bucks before and after their new additions arrive. While there doesn’t seem to be one specific amount of money experts agree on, raising kids costs a pretty penny. The good news is that there are trade-offs expectant and new parents can make to their lifestyles to make having a baby — and the price tag attached to it — more manageable. This guide will ensure you’re well-versed in everything from the benefits of seeing up a registered education savings plan and what maternity and parental leave means when it’s tax time, to the payments you’re entitled to from the government after you deliver your baby and advice on getting on employment insurance. We’ll walk you through budgeting and offer plenty of tips and tricks from parents like you who are so wrapped up in the sheer excitement of pregnancy they forget to research what a baby will mean to their bank accounts.