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Tax Justice Now for People’s Recovery!

By Campaign, Global Inequalities

Tax justice groups in Asia are calling for a Day of Action on Tax Justice to be staged on September 23 to demand changes and reforms on taxes and fiscal system with Jeannie Manipon of The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) saying that “national tax systems are biased in favor of MNCs and the elites. We can also see the similar pattern in the international tax system”, emphasizing that a progressive mechanism must be put in place in order to allow the removal of the backwards tax and fiscal system.

In an online press conference organized by the Tax and Fiscal Justice – Asia (TAFJA), the combined and resounding messages of speakers stressed that regressive tax policies exemplified by VAT and GST impact women, workers, farmers and other marginalized sectors the most and severely undermine their capacities to prepare for, respond to, survive recover and rebuild when crisis or natural disasters strike. Regressive tax systems, with their elite and gender biases are legacies of colonialism, part of systems that enable countries of the Global North to extract wealth from the Global South.

Read the full press release.

September 15, 2022
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Tax the Rich, Not the Poor!: A Call to Institute A Wealth Tax

By Events, Global Inequalities

“A wealth tax is a potent tool for equality and justice…. Groups based in the Philippines calling for a wealth tax are advocating for one of the most direct ways to stem inequality by reversing the highly regressive tax system that governments across Asia have long depended on to sustain basic public services. Regressive taxes such as Value-Added Tax (VAT) and excise taxes have long been known to hit those with smaller incomes harder, and have thus helped to widen the gap between poor and rich, women and men, marginalized sectors and influential elites.”

The Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development held a webinar on 24 August 2022, attended by nearly 300 people to release the findings of the study it commissioned recently on “Inequality, Tax Justice and the Philippine Wealth Tax Campaign”. A press release was issued on the same day, making an appeal for the use of a wealth tax in the Philippines and across Asia. Read more here.

September 2, 2022
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Tax the Rich, Not the Poor!: A Call to Institute A Wealth Tax

By Campaign, Global Inequalities

Webinar “Wealth Tax for Tax Justice: A Call Whose Time Has Come!”

As inequality and poverty grow in the Philippines, in Asia, and across the globe, so too does the call for a wealth tax.

A wealth tax is a potent tool for equality and justice. A wealth tax is a tax on the market value of assets owned by an individual taxpayer rather than on his/her income. Taxable assets may include cash, bank deposits, shares, land, real property, cars, and furniture. By taxing the wealth of high net-worth individuals and not just income, governments will be able to raise more domestic revenues for funding essential public services that are needed so urgently today.

Groups based in the Philippines calling for a wealth tax are advocating for one of the most direct ways to stem inequality by reversing the highly regressive tax system that governments across Asia have long depended on to sustain basic public services. Regressive taxes such as Value-Added Tax (VAT) and excise taxes have long been known to hit those with smaller incomes harder, and have thus helped to widen the gap between poor and rich, women and men, marginalized sectors and influential elites.

Read the full press release here.

August 24, 2022
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Fighting inequalities in the global tax system: Stop the foxed from building the chicken coop

By Economic Justice, Philippines, Tax Justice

Global tax rules are biased in favor of multinational corporations, rich countries, and the world’s elite. Corporate tax abuses and other illicit financial flows remain unchecked, bleeding economies dry and depriving people of health, education, and other public services. Inequalities in the global tax system worsen inequalities everywhere.

The ‘tax deal’ proposed by the OECD/G7/G20 will only benefit rich countries and will not solve the fundamental problem of imbalances in global tax rules that place developing countries at a severe disadvantage.

The fox cannot be left to guard the chickens or the chicken coop. Dereje Alemayehu, of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, argues that “trusting the OECD to set global rules on corporate tax when OECD member countries are responsible for over two-thirds of global corporate tax abuse is like trusting a pack of wolves to build a fence around your chicken coop.”

Stop the foxes. Fight inequalities in the global tax system and fight for just, progressive and gender-responsive systems. Stop corporate tax abuses and other illicit financial flows. Tax the rich, not the poor!

April 22, 2022
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G20-Proposed 15% global minimum corporate tax rate to give more benefits to corporations, more undue burden on the poor

By Global Inequalities

Lidy Nacpil of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (center) presses for new tax rules to be negotiated in a proposed United Nations Tax Body. Labor Leader Ka Leody De Guzman (left) calls for the scrapping of VAT and institution of a wealth tax in the country. Sanlakas Secretary General, Atty. Aaron Pedrosa, moderated the press conference.

The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) today slammed the 15% minimum global corporate tax rate jointly proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), G7, and G20, calling it the “tax deal of the rich” and instead called for the creation of a tax body under the United Nations (UN).

“Under the guise of, or pretending to be helpful as part of COVID-19 and multiple crises responses, the OECD, which is the organization of 37 wealthiest countries in the world, in collusion with the G7 and G20, are now putting forward and promoting a tax deal that will actually result in more benefits for corporations and governments of wealthy countries rather than the Global South,” APMDD coordinator Lidy Nacpil said.

“We are taking this occasion to express our rejection because in a few hours, the G20 will be convening its summit, and this is an important time to raise our voices,” she added.

Read the full press release.

October 30, 2021
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