The Taxcast

Tax As An Investment

"Tax is one of the smartest investments you can make." That's Professor Chris Harrop's promise to companies, and his new tax funded impact model proves it by helping quantify how paying tax is not only good for their businesses, but for the economies they're operating in, and of course for people and society. Plus: Why have OECD countries just bent the knee to Donald Trump and given up their  sovereign rights to tax US businesses operating within their own borders? Naomi Fowler speaks with Zorka Millin of the FACT Coalition about how US companies now have an exemption from the global minimum corporate tax. Also, Zorka discusses some progress on the Corporate Transparency Act's rollercoaster journey in the US towards setting up a beneficial ownership register - a court ruling has pushed things a little further forward, which is good news since the United States is the world's biggest financial secrecy offender. Now some of the watering down of the act needs to be reversed... And finally, the UK has strengthened its whistleblower reward scheme, lawyer Mary Inman of Whistleblower Partners tells us more. Featuring:  Zorka Millin of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition, Chris Harrop, Professor of Sustainable Business at the Huddersfield University Business  School in the UK, non-executive director with the Fair Tax Foundation, a founding partner of the Human Centre, and lawyer Mary Inman of Whistleblower Partners. Hosted and produced by Naomi Fowler with Leo Schick. Transcript of the show: https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Taxcast_January_26_Transcript.pdf  Further Reading: OECD collapse will lock in countries' tax losses to US firms - Tax Justice Network https://taxjustice.net/press/oecd-collapse-will-lock-in-countries-tax-losses-to-us-firms/ The OECD's "Side-by-Side" System Preserves, But Weakens, the Global Minimum Tax https://thefactcoalition.org/policy-brief-oecd-side-by-side-system/ U.S. Court of Appeals Upholds Landmark Anti-Money Laundering Law https://thefactcoalition.org/court-upholds-landmark-anti-money-laundering-law/   A new ESG metric: Tax Funded Impact – How fiscal multipliers turn fair tax into tangible social value https://fairtaxmark.net/a-new-esg-metric-tax-funded-impact-how-fiscal-multipliers-turn-fair-tax-into-tangible-social-value/   Lawyer Mary Inman writes on the UK's strengthened whistleblower reward scheme: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mary-inman-81229_whistleblowers-activity-7399741339099197440-aGq3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAAA404Bhqfzti-v3tZUVu1UF__9Eyi8fKs   

Trailer: The Corruption Diaries, Series 2

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. Our podcast website is available here where you can also listen to Series One featuring white collar crime lawyer Jack Blum https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/production/the-corruption-diaries/  The Corruption Diaries is available wherever you get your podcasts. 

US "r" Us or tax sovereignty?

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. Transcript of the show: https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Transcript_Taxcast_Nov_25.pdf Featuring: The Tax Justice Network's Mark Bou Mansour, Alison Schultz and Sergio Chaparro-Hernandez. Produced and hosted by Naomi Fowler. Further Reading: $475bn lost to US-backed global gag order shielding corporate tax cheaters, Tax Justice Network https://taxjustice.net/press/475bn-lost-to-us-backed-global-gag-order-shielding-corporate-tax-cheaters/ UN tax convention: Everything you need to know about current negotiations on the biggest shakeup in history to global tax rules. https://taxjustice.net/topics/un-tax-convention/ Our website with all our podcasts is available here: https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/  Get the Taxcast as soon as it comes out by subscribing by email to naomi@taxjustice.net   

Social Reuse of Seized Assets

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: https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Taxcast_Transcript_Oct_25.pdf Produced and hosted by Naomi Fowler and Leo Schick. Featuring: Scott Greytak of Transparency International US Dr. Amber Phillips, University of Bristol, Senior Criminology lecturer Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire Alison Lowe, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Tasha Dyson, Fusion Housing Derek Jones, All Saints Landmark Centre Tony Macaluso, Chapel FM Art Centre Nigel Crowther, senior financial investigator, West Yorkshire Police Alysha, Dance United Further reading: Trump's crypto pardon delivers immediate payback: https://popular.info/p/update-trumps-crypto-pardon-delivers From Crime to Community: The Social Reuse of Confiscated Assets in Italy, Spain and Romania https://www.scena9.ro/en/article/crime-community-social-reuse-confiscated-assets-italy-spain-romania Website with all our podcasts: https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/production/taxcast/

Banking on Opus Dei

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. Transcript of the show: https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Taxcast_Sept_25_Transcript-1.pdf (may not be 100% accurate) Further Reading: Opus: the Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking and Right Wing Conspiracy Inside the Catholic Church by Gareth Gore https://bookshop.org/p/books/opus-the-cult-of-dark-money-human-trafficking-and-right-wing-conspiracy-inside-the-catholic-church-gareth-gore/7b5e7a3a10fa7fa5?ean=9781668016169&digital=t Treasury Reopens the Floodgates to Dirty Money in the U.S., FACT Coalition https://thefactcoalition.org/treasury-reopens-the-floodgates-to-dirty-money-cta/ FinCEN plans to delete data on U.S. companies from beneficial ownership database, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists https://www.icij.org/news/2025/09/fincen-plans-to-delete-data-on-u-s-companies-from-beneficial-ownership-database/ ‘I became like a slave’: why 43 women are suing the secretive Opus Dei Catholic group in Argentina, the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/apr/14/argentina-human-rights-women-opus-dei-catholic-church-exploitation-abuse-celibacy-trafficking-allegations Press statement on a judicial process in Argentina, Opus Dei https://opusdei.org/en-uk/article/press-statement-on-a-judicial-process-in-argentina/  Website with more information and more Tax Justice Network podcasts https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/