Constructing a Truly Global Taxation System
Globally, each year literally hundreds of billions (if not trillions) of US dollars of corporate and personal income that should be subject to taxation by national authorities are consciously, both legally and illegally, hidden or strategically placed out of reach of tax officials. One calculation put the amount of lost tax revenue at some USD 200 Billion each year. Through the use of tax havens, secret banking arrangements, shell company structures and other methods, these hidden billions reduce governmental revenues and spending and are a key contributor to the highest levels of global income inequality ever measured.
Building on the work of the International Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation, Oxfam, innovative writers such as Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman and others, Project 4 will bring together a team of leading international taxation experts and researchers to examine the viability of a global taxation system, or a One World, One Tax approach. This system may be a means to permanently end tax avoidance and thus ensure the full collection of corporate and individual income tax, and a wealth tax, to fund desperately under-funded programmes on climate change and other global challenges. The research will focus on possible global taxation measures that could be applied to the worldwide value of real estate that is now valued at more than 200 Trillion US dollars. Revenues from a new global tax system will be vital in funding any worldwide steps taken to create a Universal Basic Income as a means of lessening the impacts of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence.
KEY OUTPUTS: PROJECT 4 WILL RESULT IN:
A highly original report on a global taxation system; A short film outlining the concept of a global taxation system, the design of such a system and the amount of untaxed revenues that could be subject to tax under such a new system.
