The story so far

We launched The Taxcast in 2012 because we knew there was an appetite for juicy stories and sophisticated, yet accessible analysis covering tax havens, tax dodging, corruption and financial secrecy. Back then, the issue wasn’t getting nearly enough attention from the media or policymakers. It still isn’t. The Taxcast now has listeners in over 130 countries and we also produce podcasts/radio shows in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. Each has its own unique content each month focused on their regions, exploring how power and decisions are working (or not working), and in whose interests.

Here’s a podcast in which the the tax justice producers discuss their experiences of broadcasting for tax justice – 30 minutes each month of unmissable corruption, scandal and analysis on corporate tax havenry, tax dodging and financial secrecy – the battles for transparency, fairness and greater democratic accountability in the public interest. The mainstream media isn’t doing a good job on this subject, so we’re filling that huge gap in coverage and understanding of one of the most challenging ethical and economic issues of our times. We hope you enjoy listening.

“Covering the issue of tax for the media…is probably deemed one of the most un-cool things and fields of research, and the way I think of it is that this [tax justice podcasts] is exactly what kind of makes it cool! The thing I enjoy the most about this podcast is taking an issue that’s usually seen as too technical, too special and trying to make media for everyone out of it, I think this is the most rewarding thing about it and I think the media always gets something very wrong…When you pitch stories like this to traditional media they will think ‘this is not interesting enough, people won’t be interested in it’ but what I think we’re proving as a team is that actually there is great interest in tax issues and it’s not just a technical matter for experts to be discussed in closed rooms”

~ Osama Diab, journalist, economic rights researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and contributor to the Tax Justice Network’s Arabic monthly podcast/radio show
الجباية ببساطة

And here are some of the key moments and greatest hits from our Taxcast archive…

2012:

  • The very first Taxcast is broadcast from a bank taken over by the Occupy movement in the City of London. Listen here.
  • We expose the scandal of the temporary tax haven of the London Olympics, working with Ethical Consumer. Listen here.
  • We interview paradigm-shifting authors of The Spirit Level Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson on why equality is better for everyone. Listen here.
  • Presenter Naomi Fowlers’s then 3-year old nephew runs everyone through the basics of anonymous shell companies… Listen here.

2013:

  • The Taxcast covers Google’s shareholder meeting where questions were raised on paying fairer taxes. Listen here.
  • Frustrated corporate tax inspector turned investigative journalist Richard Brooks talks us through the corrupting of the tax system. Listen here.
  • We look at tax havens and the arms trade. Nicholas Cage’s Lord of War makes a brief appearance.. Listen here.
  • We look at making the polluter pay for carbon use by investigating the Carbon Tax in British Columbia, Canada… Listen here.
  • We cover the fall-out from the Offshore Leaks scandal . Listen here.
  • And finally … what do Tina Turner and Muammar Gadaffi have in common? Switzerland…still number one in the Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index… Listen here. 

2014:

  • We ask HOW much does Africa spend on corporate tax breaks?!  Listen here.
  • We visit the Bahamas, a broke tax haven whose government taxes the poor. We got special permission from a Bahamian musician to play his campaigning song. Listen here.
  • We looked at ‘Londongrad’ – Russia, Ukraine and the offshore threat to global security. Listen here.
  • We look in detail at the appointment of former Prime Minister of the tax haven of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker as new EU Commission President. Listen here.
  • ‘You can lie and steal from us again but this time we’ll know who you are’.  The Taxcast speaks to the Director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Centre about how Ukrainians feel about Europe’s role in facilitating corruption. Listen here.
  • The Taxcast looks at how the Mafia is corrupting democracy in Italy. Listen here. 

2015:

  • We look at how offshore is ruining the ‘Beautiful Game’ by enabling corruption in football. Listen here and here.
  • Just what does a bank have to do to lose its licence?! We look at the fall out from HSBC Leaks. Listen here. 
  • We ask how fair are our tax systems towards women? Listen here.
  • Do our politicians believe in the societies they serve or not? The Taxcast looks at making the tax returns of our elected representatives public, and the inspirational achievement of journalist Umar Cheema of the Centre for Investigative Reporting in making Pakistan the fourth country in the world to publish the tax returns of its Parliamentarians. Listen here.
  • A special extended programme looks at the crisis in Greece and asking whatever happened to European unity? Listen here.
  • Sun, sea and tax: the Taxcast goes to Mexico and looks at how multinational tourism operates there. Listen here.
  • Insights into the usually closed world of the wealth managers who serve the super rich from Associate Professor of Copenhagen Business School, Brooke Harrington. Listen here.

2016:

  • What has Scotland got to do with the looting of Moldova? One of our most listened episodes looks at the ‘Wild West’ of Scottish Limited Partnerships. Listen here.
  • We shine the spotlight on the little known tax haven of the USA and the lawyers secretly filmed by Global Witness advising a fake corrupt African government Minister. Listen here.
  • The Panama Papers reveal 11.5 million leaked documents revealing the true scale and reach of the offshore secrecy industry, implicating world political leaders, fraudsters, drug traffickers, billionaires, celebrities, sports stars and more. Listen here.
  • The Taxcast also spoke to the journalists who broke the Panama Papers story, Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier. Listen here.
  • What is corruption? Well, that’s a political question, and the answer depends on who you ask. We discuss the anti-corruption summit in the City of London, the world’s capital of sleaze and ask if the sun ever set on the colonial era and the idea that corruption is a poor country issue. Listen here.

2017:

  • How do you stop tax-dodging companies winning lucrative state contracts? We ask the big questions in the first podcast of 2017. Listen here.
  • One year on from the biggest offshore leak in history, we ask the journalists who broke the story how much has changed. Listen here.
  • And just a few months later we discuss the latest offshore scandal, the Paradise Papers with one of the journalists who got the scoop, Pulitzer prize winning Frederik Obermaier of Suddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Listen here.

2018:

2019:

  • We unpick misleading reporting from the mainstream media on the financial crisis, and discuss the consequences. Listen here.
  • A special extended version of the Taxcast broadcasts from the tax haven and secrecy jurisdiction of Jersey, interview the main architect of its offshore model and discuss the consequences. Listen here.

For more on our work, see www.taxjustice.net