Tax Spillover multi-stakeholder event leads to ‘London Declaration’ on how to tackle disparities

International stakeholders concerned about ‘tax spillovers’ came together in London in September 2019 to discuss the findings and proposals of a paper by Professor Andrew Baker (SPERI) and co-author, Professor Richard Murphy (University of London)

SPERI - Conference

Participants at the event included the OECD, the World Bank funded Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) and major international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including Oxfam and ActionAid. The event produced agreement between a number of major NGOs on the need for an assessment framework based on the Baker and Murphy study to be used to assess countries’ tax systems. The researchers have engaged and liaised with a range of development and tax NGOs, international organisations and other expert bodies over recent years to develop a civil society consensus supporting the introduction of regular, periodic evaluations of tax spillovers. At the event, Oxfam; ActionAid; Eurodad; Tax Justice Network; Tax Justice UK, agreed the , highlighting that four principles derived from Baker and Murphy’s work should inform future assessments.

 is a significant statement of consensus and shared intent from civil society on the need for spillover assessments to become a key element of future global tax governance. On the basis of the London Declaration, the GIFT initiative will explore how country level assessments can increase fiscal transparency for a range of stakeholders in developing countries.

‘The Political Economy of ‘Tax Spillover’: A New Multilateral Framework‘ by Andrew Baker and Richard Murphy was published in Global Policy and is available to read 

The London Declaration on Tax Spillover Assessments can be read .