taxation

The deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is looming, and the poorest countries face significant funding gaps as well as growing economic inequality that stands in the way of poverty reduction.

Today, more than 8.1 million Nepalis live in poverty. To build a more equal country that leaves nobody behind, Nepal must act now to put the right policies in place, and enable citizens and social movements to advocate for progressive change and hold decision makers to account.

The Asia-Pacific region was a model for ‘growing with equity’ in the 1970s and 1980s. However an economic take-off and market-oriented reforms in recent years has been accompanied by wealth gaps between rich and poor. This report suggests a course for the region’s economies to be defined by inclusive growth and shared prosperity.

In Mali, French aid aims to build the technical capacity of Malian administrations to collect tax by fighting against fraud and tax evasion. However, collecting more domestic resources alone will not be sufficient to reduce poverty. France must support watch-dog organizations to ensure greater transparency and accountability on the use of these resources for the benefit of the poorest.

The EU will soon release a blacklist of tax havens operating outside the EU, and issue penalties for those appearing on it. This report shows what a robust blacklist would look like if the EU were to objectively apply its own criteria and not bow to political pressure.

What is the IMF doing in practice to tackle inequality? Its main initiative has been a series of pilots that integrate inequality analysis into its economic surveillance of countries. This paper outlines Oxfam’s evaluation of these pilots and finds that they are not promoting policies that reduce inequality.

Since 2015 all banks based in the European Union have been obliged to publicly report their profits and tax on a country-by-country basis. This report showcases research by Oxfam that uses this new transparency data in depth for the first time to illustrate the extent to which the top 20 EU banks are using tax havens.

This paper shows that the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) has specific weaknesses that should be addressed through its national implementation, in order to enhance the benefits for African citizens.

The gap between the richest and the rest in Indonesia has grown faster in the past two decades than in any other country in South-East Asia. This report shows how President Jokowi could fight inequality by enforcing a living wage for all workers, increasing spending on public services, and making big corporations and rich individuals pay their fair share of tax.

Vietnam has a strong record of poverty reduction, but today, increasing inequality is threatening decades of progress. To tackle the dangerous gap between rich and poor, Vietnam should urgently implement progressive policies on governance, taxation, public spending, public services, labour rights, and civic engagement.