The Taxcast

The Corruption Diaries is a journey through the eyes of anti-corruption veterans with their unique perspectives on combating one of the most compelling ethical challenges of our time.

In Series Two: Richard Allen's passion was alternative music and he set up in the music business with his own record label, managing and touring with bands like Porcupine Tree. But a tax loophole took all of that away from him and he unexpectedly became a campaigner, taking on tax dodgers and the British authorities from his garden shed. Produced by Leo Schick and hosted by Naomi Fowler of the Tax Justice Network.

Countries can either capitulate to President Trump's tax bullying. Or come together to fight for the sovereign right to tax multinationals fairly. In this episode host Naomi Fowler explores whether US economic policy is actually good for the US economy and its people. We've done some number crunching looking at what really happened after Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It tells us a lot about the state of tax justice, its real effects on people, and the misguided exercise of power.

When tax officials and law enforcement do manage to recover assets and money from criminals, what happens next? How are those seizures used to benefit taxpayers and society? We think there are lots of missed opportunities here and the Taxcast goes to West Yorkshire in the North of England to see social reuse of seized assets in action. It's pretty heartening.

Plus: President Donald Trump has pardoned convicted money launderer Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. We speak to Scott Greytak of Transparency International US about what this means for the financial integrity of the US financial system and the ramifications for the rest of the world.

A transcript of the show is available here:

We look at the outsized influence of a small and secretive Catholic institution, Opus Dei, from Spain's dictator Franco, right up to the present day. And the bank it secretly controlled for sixty years:

"This sounds a bit like a bit of conspiracy theory but trust me, it's very real. It's in almost every major city around the world and it's quite ruthless. It's close to the Trump regime because they share a lot of common ground." ~ Gareth Gore, journalist and author

Plus: in the latest twist in the epic battle to end anonymous ownership in the United States, the US's financial regulator FinCEN has announced that only 'foreign businesses' with 'foreign owners' will now be required to report ownership information to the federal government. It's announced plans to actually delete ownership information that 'US companies' have already submitted. We look at the options to stop the US sliding even further into a corruption abyss:

"The US is making a commitment to stay at the back of the pack compared to the rest of the world." ~ Erica Hanichak, FACT Coalition

Co-produced by host Naomi Fowler and Leo Schick.

The persecution of anyone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant in the United States is not only taking the form of armed, masked ICE agents. Tax is being weaponised against them too. An estimated 10.9 million undocumented immigrants are the powerhouse of the United States economy, and also an exploitable workforce with minimal rights. It turns out that they're paying a higher effective tax rate than 55 mega-corporations and several billionaires:

There's something very wrong with our tax system, that people with that much wealth could be paying a lower tax rate than undocumented immigrants who are generally working in low paying jobs.

A nation that's focused on persecuting and purging specific groups of people is not a healthy one. And as people are being ripped out of their communities, we look at the data that show how devastating it is for the economy and public services too.

Plus: bullying at home, bullying abroad: President Trump is deploying tariffs and threats of tariffs against countries who have the audacity to want to tax US multinationals fairly on the business they do in their countries. We look at the options for nations to stand together and resist.

The US administration wants US multinationals to be more able to continue to commit corporate tax abuse than everybody else.

Featuring:

Alex Cobham, Tax Justice Network

Lauren Loricchio, investigations editor, Tax Notes

William Rice, policy consultant, Americans for Tax Fairness

Delia Catalina Ramírez, Congresswoman, Illinois, District 3

Co-produced by host Naomi Fowler and Leo Schick.