#EndTaxHavens, April 2017

The growing number of recent tax haven exposés – including the Panama Papers, LuxLeaks, Swiss Leaks and Bahamas Leaks – have brought to the fore the human costs of global tax avoidance and evasion.
Timed to coincide with the one year anniversary of the publication of the Panama Papers, the Global Week of Action to #EndTaxHavens, 1-7 April 2017 was designed to encourage and promote diverse activities across our tax justice communities to increase public pressure on governments around the world to end the damaging practice of tax havens.

End Tax Havens

1. WHAT’S AT STAKE?

Please join Global Alliance for Tax Justice members and our partners. Together we’re building public and political momentum globally to ensure our governments heed our advocacy demands to:

End tax havens
Make multinational corporations and the wealthy pay their share
Require public country-by-country reporting for all multinational corporations
Establish an inclusive intergovernmental UN Global Tax Body, where all countries have an equal say in setting international tax policies
Implement progressive tax policies
Use tax revenues to fund the public services and social protections that are the means to ending poverty and inequality
Protection for whistleblowers

2. PLAN YOUR ACTION

Start planning your creative actions now for the Global Week of Action to #EndTaxHavens, 1-7 April 2017. See CAMPAIGN RESOURCES below and click here for the Toolkit and here for the Fact sheet.
Join with tax justice, trade union, faith and other civil society groups in your country to understand the issues and plan joint work together.
Plan now to write and place an opinion editorial in your major national newspaper, on the occasion of the one year anniversary of the Panama Papers publication. Reflect on what your government has/has not done to end tax havens and tax avoidance/evasion by multinationals and the very rich, and reference some of our common advocacy demands. Together we can make headlines around the world during this week of action.
Send letters and ask to meet directly with your national government and UN representatives to explain why it’s time to #EndTaxHavens.
Campaign targets may include multinational corporations, banks, tax avoidance enablers (lawyers, accounting firms) and governments.
National-level actions can include holding town hall hearings, public street events, media briefings, community film screenings, presenting advocacy letters or petitions to government leaders and UN representatives, and participating in the Multinationals, pay your share! and #EndTaxHavens photo petitions.
Promote the campaign through social media @GA4TJ #EndTaxHavens | #TaxJustice| #GlobalTaxBody
Let us know what you’re doing! We’ll promote your activities and suggest connections to build impact. Please fill out the SUBMIT EVENT form.
And please send your event details, news, photos, videos, and social media links to Marie, Teresa (GATJ), or Olivia (ActionAid).

SUBMIT YOUR EVENT

3. WHAT'S HAPPENING?

KEY DATES

17-18 March - G20 Finance Ministers meeting, Germany
Immediatly - Send your media pitch to national media! You can adapt our template media pitch.
1 - 7 April - #EndTaxHavens Global Week of Action happens worldwide!
So far, campaign actions are being planned throughout the week in in: Peru, Burundi, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ireland, UK, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and the USA!
Sat. 1 April - April Fool’s Day and official launch day for the Global Week of Action to #EndTaxHavens
Mon. 3 April - Mark the one year anniversary of the release of the Panama Papers with opinon editorials across the globe!
3-6 April - 14th session of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters (Committee) UN, New York
7 April - ECOSOC special meeting on international cooperation in tax matters UN, NY
Sat. 15 April - Tax Marches across USA. People and organisations across the US are mobilising on April 15th, to collectively demand President Donald Trump release his tax returns, and for the US to implement fair tax policies.

GLOBAL MAP OF ACTIONS

4. PROJECTED OUTCOMES

A series of coordinated creative public actions that raise popular awareness of the damaging effects of tax havens, and increase pressure on governments to end tax havens and to ensure that multinationals and the wealthy pay their share of taxes to fund the vital public services such as healthcare, education and water that our families need.
Actions that highlight the urgent need for public country-by-country reporting for all multinational corporations.
Actions to advance the demand for an inclusive intergovernmental UN Global Tax Body.
National, regional and global tax justice coalition movement building.
Escalating attention to the issues building on the #TaxJustice for Women’s Rights Global Days of Action, 8-24 March 2017.

5. ORGANIZING TEAM

The initiative to hold a global day or week of action to end tax havens was proposed by Attac chapters from around the world and endorsed by participants in the 2016 World Social Forum convergence assembly, co-chaired by the Global Alliance for Tax Justice. This Global Week of Action to # EndTaxHavens is endorsed by the GATJ Coordination Committee of regional members, and Campaign & Policy Committee, and co-organized through the GATJ Global Action working group.

Find out more and share your ideas for actions to #EndTaxHavens by contacting the GATJ Global Action working group through Olivia and the GATJ campaign & communications team Teresa and Marie .

6. BLOGS & OP-EDs

A number of opinion editorials and blogs have been published within the #EndTaxHavens campaign worldwide:

Honduras : Warning: Honduras is about to become a tax haven, by Ismael Zepeda, Economist and researcher at Foro Social de Deuda Externa y Desarrollo de Honduras (FOSDEH).
European Union:
- Why the Panama Papers' birthday is no cause for celebration by Tove Maria Ryding of Eurodad, and Chair, GATJ Campaign & Policy Group
- One year after the Panama Papers, the EU’s drive for increased financial transparency risks falling short, by Eurodad’s Policy and Advocacy Officer Jasper de Meyer.
Burundi: CIDEP’s Appolinaire Nishirimbere featured this article in his blog The Burundian Semaine mondiale dédiée à l’action pour mettre fin aux paradis fiscaux
Québec: Paradis fiscaux, une lutte à poursuivre a blog published in Huffington Post by ATTAC Québec’s President Claude Vaillancourt.
Spain:
- En lucha contra los paraísos fiscales: del periodismo a la calle by Ana Sagaseta Almazán of Oxfam Intermon and a member of the Platform for Fiscal Justice in Madrid
- Vacaciones pagadas en la guarida del lobo fiscal by Jonás Candalija in La Voz de Galicia.
- The op-ed Guaridas piratas by UGT International Policy Secretary Jesús Gallego García was published in the Spanish newspaper El Diario, along with Guaridas fiscales: sin tretas no hay paraíso from Oxfam’s (des)igualdad blog.
- Sí se puede actuar contra los paraísos fiscales, by Xavier Caño Tamayo, from ATTAC Madrid, on ATTAC España’s website.
- Expulsados del paraíso (fiscal), by Miguel Alba, from Oxfam Intermón and Spanish Platform for Tax Justice, also in El Diario’s blog (des)igualdad.
- Catalunya: Inferns fiscals an opinion editorial (Catalan) by David Fernàndez.
- La fiscalidad es el eje fundamental para desarrollar las políticas sociales by the Unión General de Trabajadores.
France: Un an après les « Panama Papers » : « Comment se fait-il que les systèmes fiscaux deviennent de plus en plus régressifs ? » an opinion editorial in Le Monde.
USA:
- One Year After Panama, Some Progress, More Must Be Done to End Anonymous Companies by Gary Kalman, FACT Coalition/GATJ North America network.
- FACT Coalition’s publication “New Bills Take Aim at Offshore Tax Haven Abuse” welcomes the introduction of new legislative measures in the US.

Norway: Tax Justice Network – Norway’s op-ed was printed in Aftenposten – the newspaper that broke the Panama Papers in Norway Ett år er gått siden gigantlekkasjen. Var det bare et blaff? Panama-papirene må tvinge politikerne til handling
UK:
- One year on from the Panama Papers: how well is the UK tackling tax avoidance? by Oli Pearce, Policy Manager at Oxfam GB
- Christian Aid Acting Senior UK Political Adviser Simon Kirkland published A Year On From The Panama Papers - When Will We See Real Transparency On Tax? in the Huffington Post.
Austria: ATTAC Austria’s Panama is still everywhere was covered in the Austrian daily newspaper Tiroler Tageszeitung (online and print version). See also the press release here.
Italy: Oxfam Italia’s crew complemented their blog on Italian Press Agency AGI and online petition to end tax havens, engaging Italian Parliamentarians and tagging them in a series of tweets calling for public registers of beneficial ownership.
Latin America: The Paguen lo Justo campaign, of Global Alliance for Tax Justice’s regional network member Red de Justicia Fiscal, co-edits “Tax hideaways, how much longer?”, issue No. 522 of América Latina en Movimiento magazine (March 2017).
Sweden : ”Dags för Sverige och EU att stoppa skatteflykten” an opinion editorial by Diakonia and Fair Finance Guide Sweden, in Svenska Dagladet.
Ireland: Global tax system still defective a year after Panama Papers in the Irish Times, by Sorley McCaughey, head of advocacy and policy at Christian Aid Ireland.

Brazil: INESC published a comprehensive article combining videos, facts, figures and a to-do list to find out “What can be done against Tax Havens”.