It's the wrong time to publish a blog, but this couldn't wait -

A UN Tax Convention - then a U-turn https://www.taxjustice.net/2020/09/04/a-un-tax-convention-then-a-u-turn/ via @taxjusticenet

Last night, the UN published recommendations for consideration by the global meeting of ministers of finance next week. Quite remarkably, it included the #taxjustice demand for a UN Tax Convention to be negotiated.

We @TaxJusticeNet and @GA4TJ have long pushed for this - a convention to deliver global inclusion in the tax transparency measures from which lower-income countries are systematically excluded, and to create a globally representative forum for international tax rules to be set

To see the UN, after months of country negotiations and expert input, recommend that finance ministers pursue a UN Tax Convention, was huge.

But-

Just a few hours later, the UN had U-turned.

Under pressure from [US, UK, OECD??], the document was taken down and replaced. With an almost identical one. Except for the crucial line

So this is a bit embarrassing. And not great for confidence in the purity of UN processes. But on the other hand, if this was at the OECD, we'd never have had a sniff of it. And we wouldn't know, because the negotiations at OECD aren't public, which countries opposed the measure

The bigger picture is that the tide is turning - confidence in the OECD's ability to deliver solutions that don't systematically discriminate against non-members has hit rock bottom. And rightly so. The UN offers a chance for a genuinely global space to address tax abuses.

The ongoing work of the UN @FACTIpanel, which has identified exactly the flaws in current arrangements that demonstrate the need for a tax convention, is the ideal opportunities for countries to begin to scope out what a convention could involve.

And the OECD? They probably have one last shot at global legitimacy, if they were to respond to the pandemic by moving immediately to open up data on offshore wealth and corporate profit shifting, so countries at all income levels could take measures to bolster their revenues.

But the bigger story of the U-turn on a UN Tax Convention is this - it's getting closer anyway. https://www.taxjustice.net/2020/09/04/a-un-tax-convention-then-a-u-turn/