The Uncounted. Alex Cobham

Preface

      In late 1998, I sat down nervously at my first academic job interview, at Queen Elizabeth House (QEH, Oxford University’s Department of International Development). As I mumbled about the model of multinational companies’ location decisions that I’d been working on, I didn’t realize that the two people interviewing me would come to form something like intellectual bookends for a quite different research path: that of the ‘Uncounted’. Shamefully, I knew nothing of their work – not the leading work of Professor Frances Stewart on approaches to poverty and on group inequalities, nor that of Professor Valpy FitzGerald on tax havens and other issues of international finance and development. But one way and another, their work underpins the concept of the uncounted, at the bottom and at the top of the distribution, respectively.

      The uncounted is the kind of idea that, once it’s in your head, you find yourself seeing everywhere. At least I did. And so this book is a distillation of much of the work I’ve been lucky enough to be part of since that QEH interview. I am grateful to each of the organizations that have given me the chance, and each of the people who supported it, facilitated it, tolerated it, inspired it, turned a blind eye to it …

These include QEH and St Anne’s College, Oxford, where I was lucky to work with many dedicated colleagues and exceptional students; Christian Aid, where, with Charles Abugre, Alison Kelly and a host of talented campaign, media and advocacy staff, we launched the first international nongovernmental organization (INGO) campaign for tax justice, and encountered everything from the false outrage of Jersey’s financial services sector at being accused of less than saintly practices, to the true outrage of the racist citizenship machinations of the Dominican Republic’s government; Save the Children, where a committed team including Nuria Molina, Jess Espey and Alison Holder was able to make an important, progressive contribution to the UN discussions of the post-2015 agenda, and where a blog called ‘Uncounted’ first appeared; and the Center for Global Development, where Owen Barder and I provided technical input to the UK’s 2013 G8 summit focused on tax transparency, and where Andy Sumner and I proposed the Palma ratio as an alternative income inequality measure (and a special mention to Charles Kenny, who fully deserves some of the blame for encouraging me to write this book).

I’ve also benefited from working with the International Centre for Tax and Development, where, with Mick Moore’s important support and the dedication of Wilson Prichard and Andrew Goodall, the Government Revenue Database, now hosted at UNU-WIDER, was launched; the UN Global Thematic Consultation on Addressing Inequalities, where I was a moderator for the post-2015 economic inequalities discussion; the African Union/UNECA High Level Panel chaired by Thabo Mbeki, where Alice Lépissier and I proposed a new approach to illicit financial flows; the Fair Tax Mark, where an initiative to commend companies that embrace tax transparency was first launched; the Global Reporting Initiative, where I joined the technical committee drafting a tax transparency standard; the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), which is playing an important role in changing global norms; and (while I had the legs for it) Union Street FC, which is probably not.

      While some roles focused more heavily on research, and some on public advocacy, the Tax Justice Network provides the happy freedom to pursue both. The network was formally established in 2003 to fight for a more equal global distribution of taxing rights, and with it the fair and effective tax systems that support powerful and inclusive human progress; and against the financial secrecy and unjust international rule-setting that thwarts this. Through rigorous analysis, expert policy engagement and high-profile public communications, we aim to promote radical proposals reflecting social justice concerns within what can otherwise often be closed, technical processes.

      This book looks at both sides of a puzzle, to which tax justice is – naturally! – an important element of the answer. The first part of the book explores the ways in which people are excluded from political power directly, and from political weighting in decisions about public policy priorities. A fair tax system is part and parcel of ensuring transparent and accountable government, and inclusive political representation that weighs each person appropriately. The second part of the book deals with the top end of the income distribution – the analysis of financial secrecy and opacity that allows wealthy individuals and multinational companies to escape the onshore regulation and taxation that everyone else accepts as part of the social contract. Finally, the book concludes with a set of policy proposals. These, of course, draw heavily on the work of the amazing team and associated experts of the Tax Justice Network – to which any and all proceeds of the book will go. There are too many giants to name all the shoulders I’m standing on, many of whom are referenced through the text. John Christensen, erstwhile economic adviser to the secrecy jurisdiction of Jersey and subsequently founder of the Tax Justice Network, deserves enormous credit for turning ideas into movement.

I am grateful to all those individuals and organizations mentioned, and many more – from collaborators in catalytic efforts such as Open Data for Tax Justice, to our allies at the Global Alliance for Tax Justice and the Financial Transparency Coalition, to all those at UN bodies, including UNCTAD, UNECA, DESA and UNESCWA, who have participated in the ongoing efforts to achieve tax transparency and fairer international rules, and indeed some at the IMF, OECD and World Bank; and to the funders who have