Conference Alert – SAVE THE DATE : « Tax Justice to Promote Social Justice. Research on Taxes for Development ».

The Global Alliance For Tax Justice (GATJ) and the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) are pleased to invite you to join us for an important conference to build closer cooperation between professional researchers and tax justice activists : « Tax Justice to Promote Social Justice. Research on Taxes for Development »

Tuesday, 24 February 2015, 9.00 to 18.00
University of Vienna, Austria

Hosted by the Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation (VIDC) and the Department of Development Studies (IE) – University of Vienna

Background

Taxation plays an important role for the mobilization of (public) domestic revenues and will probably become one of the hot topics at the United Nation’s Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa in July 2015. Taxes play an important role not only in providing collective public goods. Tax systems can also enhance democratic governance by making governments more accountable to their tax-paying citizens. Tax policies can be designed to curb inequalities as well, but need to be complemented by redistributive budget policies.

But despite the importance of tax for financing development and redistributing wealth, many countries are not able to increase their tax revenues. The reasons can be found on the domestic level (tax administrations’ capacity problems, numerous tax incentives and exemptions etc) but also on the international level: An outdated international tax architecture, that is based on bilateral tax agreements and is unsuitable for the globalized economy of the 21st century, as well as an international system of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, enhance tax avoidance and evasion.

Especially international corporations profit from declining corporate tax rates and tax incentives, exploiting existing loopholes in and between national legislations. Initiatives from the G20 and the OECD are currently developed to address these problems. But criticism is voiced that these reforms will not go deep enough, leaving untouched the root causes of rising illicit flows, tax evasion and avoidance.

Program

Taxing Corporations – Fair Share versus Race to the Bottom Approaches

· spillover analysis (addressing effects of international tax competition)
· new concepts for corporate taxation
· taxation of extractive industries

Let There be Light! A Case for Transparency

· country by country reporting
· automatic and other forms of international information exchange
· beneficial ownership and public registries
· overcoming persistent data problems

Tax and Budget Policies to End Inequality

· revenue and spending policy mix to address inequalities
· relationship between taxation, justice, human rights and social policy
· gender responsive taxation, gender budgeting

Wrap up – The Way to Addis: Taxes as a Key Source for Domestic Revenue and Sustainable Development

· strengthening national tax systems and legislation
· role of taxes in the UN Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals – Financing for Development (FfD) process
· targets for the 3rd Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa (July 2015) and beyond

A detailed program will follow soon. Participation is free of charge.
Conference website: http://www.vidc.org/en/topics/international-economy/economic-policies/tax-justice-conference/

For more information and registration, please contact Martina Neuwirth: neuwirth@vidc.org