2016

Winning the Tax Wars; Protecting Developing Countries

In collaboration with the World Bank Group, TaxCOOP is organizing its second world conference at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington D.C., United States.

The program and our 2016 Sponsors

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The Great Debate 2016

Tax competition or tax cooperation? Consequences for developing countries.

Debaters

Alison Holder Director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns, Action Aid UK

Véronique de Rugy Research Director, Mercantus Center, George Mason University

Jury

Louise Otis International Administrative Judge and Arbitrator; Assistant Professor, McGill University

Jay K. Rosengard Professor, Harvard Kennedy School

Host

Brigitte Alepin Tax specialist; Professor at UQO; author

Moderator

Alison Christians Accredited Professor, H. Heward Stikeman Chair in Tax Law, McGill University

The purpose of the debate is to discuss the results of tax competition in relation to tax cooperation from the perspective of developing countries (2:30:20 à 3:32:32). This issue will be addressed in the light of the three following resolutions:

Résolution 1

Be it resolved that: Tax competition harms developing countries by reducing their ability to generate tax revenue to finance the physical and social infrastructure necessary for economic growth and social inclusion.

Résolution 2

Be it resolved that: Tax competition increases dependence on foreign aid, making developing countries more vulnerable, since aid is volatile.

Résolution 3

Be it resolved that: Tax competition worsens existing income disparities between developed and developing countries.

Tax for the promotion of public assets – tobacco taxes

This panel is devoted to exploring how countries can use tobacco taxes to reduce harmful behaviour and increase state tax revenue by reducing healthcare spending. Lessons learned for developing countries are highlighted.

See it Patricio Marquez and the speakers:

George Akerlof, 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics and professor at Stanford and Georgetown Universities (9:10 to 20:00);

Philip Cook, ITT Professor / Terry Sanford, Political Studies, Duke University and author (21:20 to 37:00);

Jason Furman, President of the Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the United States of America (39:40 to 50:00);

Jérémias Paul, coordinator of the tobacco economy program and former deputy secretary of finance of the Philippines (56:40 to 1:10:08);

Rong Zhen, professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, and the World Health Organization (1:11:20 to 1:23:34);

And finally, Fernando Serra Semiglia, Director of Taxation and Taxation (MEF), Uruguay (1:25:30 to 1:40:00).

Memoir

Winning the tax wars, 2016

Over the past few decades, the concentration of wealth and property in the hands of a few has been facilitated by tax evasion, tax avoidance, and above all by tax competition. Fortunately, a determined move toward international cooperation among tax authorities is gathering its forces for the battle.

Stemming from a 2016 conference initiated by the Canadian nonprofit organization TaxCOOP, convened by the World Bank and bringing together well-known taxation experts from prominent international organizations, the book presents outstanding contributions highlighting the impacts of tax competition and viable solutions.

PURCHASE

Winning the Tax Wars

2016. Winning the tax wars : Tax Competition and Cooperation. Edited by Brigitte Alepin, Blanca Moreno-Dodson, Louise Otis. Series on International Taxation : Wolters Kluwer. 181p.

The World Bank

The World Bank is like a cooperative in which the shareholders are its 189 member countries. These shareholders are represented by a Board of Governors, which is the supreme decision-making body of the World Bank. The Governors are generally the finance or development ministers of member countries. They meet once a year during the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the World Bank Group, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Governors delegate certain aspects of their mandate to 25 administrators, who are stationed at World Bank headquarters. The five major shareholders each appoint an administrator, and the other member countries are represented by elected administrators.

The World Bank operates under the leadership and guidance of the President, members of management and the Vice Presidents responsible for the various regional offices, sectors and networks.