The Netherlands is a top EU tax haven for corporations, an analysis by Eurodad member Oxfam of European Commission data shows. Of 33 harmful tax practices listed by the EU executive, 17 were identified in the country currently holding the EU presidency.

This week, European Union finance ministers agreed to establish a common EU blacklist of so-called “non-cooperative jurisdictions” – in other words, tax havens. With one tax scandal unfolding after the other, listing and sanctioning tax havens may seem like a good solution. However, as tempting as it may sound, this EU exercise is doomed to fail – and here’s why. 

In the past year, scandal after scandal has exposed companies using loopholes in the tax system to avoid taxation. Now more than ever, it is becoming clear that citizens around the world are paying a high price for the crisis in the global tax system, and the discussion about multinational corporations and their tax tricks remains at the top of the agenda. There is also a growing awareness that the world’s poorest countries are even harder impacted than the richest countries. In effect, the poorest countries are paying the price for a global tax system they did not create.

The Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) package released last year by the OECD is unlikely to put an end to tax scandals. In this blog our tax team busts open some of the most popular BEPS-related myths.

Eurodad’s member Oxfam International has published a new briefing titled Pulling the plug: how to stop corporate tax dodging in Europe and beyond.

This new report by Spanish Eurodad member Intermón Oxfam titled "La ilusión fiscal" states how IBEX35 companies increased their presence in tax havens a 44%. In just one year their subsidiaries in tax havens passed from 561 in 2012 to 810 in 2013. This increasing presence in opaque low-tax jurisdictions contrasts with the data of Corporate Income Tax collection in Spain, which fell 56% from 2007 and 2014 thus representing a 25 billion € reduction. During the same period, Spanish population at poverty and exclusion risk grew to 2 millions (27.3% in 2013).

The economic and financial crisis in Europe has raised awareness and frustration among both leaders and the public on the issue of tax dodging and its cost to the public purse. This report  brings together civil society organisations in 15 EU countries to examine their national governments’ commitments and actions towards combatting tax dodging and ensuring transparency.

Tax-related capital flight is a major problem the world over, particularly for the poorest people, who are unfairly losing billions of euro every year as a result of this practice. In this report, civil society organisations in 13 European countries examine the tax-related capital flight policies in their respective countries.