1. THE COFFERS PROJECT presented at the Fair and Sustainable Taxation Conference
UU Founded in 1636
by Prof. Dr. Brigitte Unger
9th of March 2017 in Brno

2. COFFERS – EU Horion 2020 Project
Combatting Fiscal Fraud and Empowering Regulators
November October 2019

3. Working Package Leaders
WP7: CBS
Bo Bøgeskov
WP1: City
Ronen Palan
Director Tax Gaps
Richard Murphy
WP5: ULIM
Sheila Killian
WP2: TJN
Markus Meinzer
WP4: CBS
Duncan Wigan
(Leonard Seabrooke)
WP3: UB
Thomas Rixen
WP6 & 8: UU
Brigitte Unger
(Joras Ferwerda)

4. Evolution of Fiscal Regulations 1996-2016
1989 FATF 1991
1st AML DIRECTIVE
2nd AML D.2001
3rd AML DIRECTIVE 2005
4th AML DIRECTIVE
2015
USA PATRIOT ACT 2001
THE PROJECT ARGUES THAT INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS INITIATED BOTH BY REGULATORS AND CIVIL SOCIETY COME FROM A COLD INTO A HOT PHASE – Morning Speakers will talk about this in more detail
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Base Erosion and Profit Shifting
The introduction of the "Zero/Ten tax regime", which is enshrined in the Income Tax (Amendment No. 28) Jersey Law 2007, means that the standard rate of corporate income tax will be zero per cent. A special rate of 10 per cent will apply to financial service companies, including banking, trust advisory services and entities providing fund functionary services.
Figure 1 notes a number of interventions and the evolutionary paths of their development. To walk through, starting on the left we have the initial interventions from the EU with the formation of the Code of Conduct group and from the OECD with the launch of the Harmful Tax Competition report. These initiatives attracted heavy criticism from civil society and led to the launch of the Financial Secrecy Index, which proved a powerful catalyst in evolutionary acceleration playing into significant moves on transparency and regulatory upgrading. The initial Savings Tax Directive, although path-breaking, was considered flawed by design from those seeking rapid and progressive evolution. Given the shift to a fast-burning and hot policy environment, disappointment with the impact of Savings Tax Directive and the hypocrisy of some EU members led to a push from civil society for more effective Automatic Exchange of Information (AEoI). Ultimately, the United States made the first move with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). However, this was a limited and unilateral initiative designed to protect US revenue and required multilateral development. EU Member States were quick to sign up to FATCA and a conjuncture between the US move and rising concerns within the EU led to the adoption of more comprehensive AEoI in a reinforced Savings Tax Directive and then a multilateral instrument promoted by the OECD. Next, is the innovation of a template for Country-by-Country Reporting (CBCR) by the Tax Justice Network, which in the slow-burning phase, met on deaf ears. Under pressure from the G8, when the issue of corporate tax abuse had become a hot political issue, CBCR was adopted by the OECD in its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative and pushed into EU legislation targeting banks and the extractives sector. As noted, this provides only a snapshot of some recent initiatives, but this brief illustration of the evolutionary patterns of policy development, from slow to fast and cold to hot, is the starting point for COFFE

5. Darwinian Devils Hitting the Tax-Eco System
PROJECT PROMISES TO ANALyZE these new international Regulations –
The reactions of jurisdicitons, corporations, experts to them
And to ADVICE Policy Makers how to adapt and change these rules again.

6. Visions on the Project
Fight Inequality, Filling the COFFERS of the public sector
Combining two strands of research: Money Laundering and Tax Evasion
Multidisciplinarity
Improve Measurements
Find Policy Recommendations for Europe
Creating synergy effects of the project
Develop tools and empower regulators
AML Regulation....parallels to tax evasion regulation but switch from regulation to enforcement, blacklisting failed

7. WP 9 Ethics
Coordinator Richard Murphy on Tax Gaps

8. THANK YOU ! Prof. Dr. Brigitte Unger Utrecht University
School of Economics
Kriekenpitplein 21
3584EC Utrecht
The Netherlands
+31-(0)
Brigitte Unger