We've moved to a new site!

Join us at publicservices.international - for all the latest news, resources and struggles from around the world.

We are no longer updating world-psi.org and it will be progressively phased out: all content will be migrated to the new site and old links will redirect eventually.

  1. Home
  2. Issues
  3. Public Funding/Tax Justice

Public Funding/Tax Justice

The gap between the rich and the rest of us is growing rapidly. In many countries, the richest 1% pay less tax than everyone else. Profitable multinational corporations use loopholes and tax havens to avoid paying their share. Around the world, inequality is growing. A taxation system based on fairness and ability to pay is the first step in reversing this attack on the middle class.

EU Apple Tax Ruling shows austerity is a political decision, says Pavanelli

31 August 2016
Protesting Against Apple's Tax Policy - Dublin Street Art (William Murphy/Flickr)

The EU’s tax ruling on Apple announced on 30 August shows that finally the European Commission (EC) is acknowledging that austerity is a political, not economic, choice. That's the main message behind the striking decision, according to PSI General Secretary who congratulated the EC for showing the political will to chase large multinationals like Amazon and McDonald's (also currently under investigation).

PSI puts tax justice for local and urban communities into the public debate at Habitat III PrepCom3

06 August 2016
PSI and ICRICT side event on tax justice for local communities

Over 80 people participated in a side event organized by PSI in collaboration with the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) and with the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) of the University of Greenwich, UK, on the theme “Financing and investing in urban public services: the key to inclusive cities”.  The event was held on 26 July 2016 in Surabaya, Indonesia, within the framework of the Third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom3) of Habitat III (25-27 July 2016), where a delegation of PSI Municipal affiliates from the Asia-Pacific region headed by General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli took an active part.

Pavanelli and Van Leeuwen meet the Director General of the ILO

02 August 2016

Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary, and Fred Van Leeuwen, Education International General Secretary, met yesterday (1st August) the Director General of the ILO, Guy Ryder, to highlight the role of public services in reducing inequality and poverty.

Tax Justice Forum: How to spread that wealth around

01 June 2016

At a time when inequality is rising and public services are being cut, the Panama Papers have shone a new light on corporate accountability. We are looking for new ways to fund development - tax policy has never been more relevant.

Unions and Civil Society highlight need for fairer tax and trade rules, less private-sector emphasis at UNCTAD hearing.

26 May 2016

PSI joined a coalition of NGOs and unions in pushing the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to adopt a stronger commitment to a fairer global tax and trade system at the UNCTAD quadrennial event in Nairobi later this year.

Financial officers file complaint against KPMG over Isle of Man controversy

20 May 2016
KPMG

PSI affiliate, the Association of Canadian Financial Officers (ACFO) representing more than 4,500 government financial officers has lodged two formal complaints of professional misconduct against accounting firm KPMG over its work in setting up offshore tax structures on the Isle of Man.

Austerity is unjustifiable while richest are allowed to dodge taxes: Panama papers highlights hypocrisy

05 April 2016

The curtain has been pulled back. The Panama Papers have exposed the inner workings of a broken tax system for all the world to see. It is no longer possible for our governments to justify austerity when they let the richest avoid paying their fair share of tax.Now the public will be letting governments know that this is just the first step on the road to a more transparent and fairer global tax system.

Final Declaration of the seminar on Public Debt and the Puerto Rican situation

31 March 2016

The participants of the International Seminar “Public Debt, a global problem: international experiences
and Puerto Rico’s situation” held on March 30, 2016 in San Juan, capital city of Puerto Rico, expressed
their strong support and solidarity with the Puerto Rican people in their struggle to overcome the fiscal,
economic and social crisis they are facing.

Water and Sanitation are Human Rights, NOW!

21 March 2016
logo

On 22 March, PSI celebrated World Water Day. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 requires that governments ensure universal access to water and sanitation by 2030. However, we are seeing a new push for public-private partnerships (PPPs). We know that PPPs fail to deliver social and environmental targets, and PSI will help affiliates block this approach. We call for a rights-based approach, with public finance and management in the interests of all.

Mistreated: The tax treaties that are depriving the world’s poorest countries of vital revenue

25 February 2016
Mistreated

ActionAid has released a new report that reveals how tax treaties are reducing the tax that some of the world’s poorest countries can collect from multinational companies.

G20 and the broken International Corporate Tax System

09 November 2015
Missing tax example for Germany

Ahead of the G20 summit, PSI has been involved in preparing a report that outlines the sheer scale of tax avoidance which corporations are getting away with through profit shifting.

G20 among biggest losers in large-scale tax abuse – but poor countries relatively hardest hit

09 November 2015
Calculator for tax

G20 countries are among the biggest losers when US multinationals avoid paying taxes where they do business. This is the main finding of a new report on the global tax system, ‘Still Broken,’ released by the Tax Justice Network, Oxfam, Global Alliance for Tax Justice and Public Services International.

Join actions in support for LuxLeaks whistleblower

27 October 2015
Whistle tax justice

PSI joins EPSU in the action to mark the one-year anniversary of the LuxLeaks revelations, when Antoine Deltour, whistleblower and former PriceWaterhouseCoopers employee, exposed multinational corporations who use Luxemburg as a tax haven. Please join us on 4 November in Brussels for a demonstration organised by the Global Alliance for Tax Justice.

BEPS Outcomes: Comprehensive bandaging of a very sick patient

05 October 2015
Taxes

The publication on 5 October of the final report of the G20/ OECD project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) shows just how much work remains to be done to fix a crippled global tax system.

Chevron’s Aggressive Tax Avoidance Exposed at Global Summit

17 September 2015
Chevron Headquarters, Houston - Photo: Dave Wilson (Creative Commons)

[GENEVA, 17 September 2015] - A report released today has revealed the extent of tax avoidance undertaken by US-based oil giant, Chevron, on its largest global project – the Gorgon LNG project in Australia.

Financial Transaction Tax: Myth-busting

28 August 2012

A financial transactions tax - also known as a Robin Hood Tax - is winning more and more support as a means to generate substantial new reventue to fund quality public services and sustainable development. It is also an important step towards tax fairness.

Rio+20 Working for a sustainable world

16 July 2012

The general failure of the Rio +20 negotiations presents both threats and opportunities for public service unions. These will require local and national level responses, as well as coordination across regions and globally.

Public Control Workers and the Fight against Corruption

15 June 2012

Ending corruption requires public and political organising to demand that governments represent public interests, instead of rich individuals and powerful companies, and to hold them accountable.

Why we need public spending - 2009

08 February 2012

The analysis presented here is a powerful reminder that public investment in public services and social benefits is central to social and economic development, and is more efficient than leaving such services to be supplied by the market. It shows the economic efficiency of using taxation to finance public spending on infrastructure and services which enable and support all other economic activity. It shows that higher taxation is affordable, and that corporations in particular are paying far too little tax.

Global Corporate Taxation and Resources for Quality Public Services

28 November 2011

The study has been commissioned by Education International Research Institute on behalf of the Council of Global Unions. The current debate on sovereign debt is conducted as if there were no other option than austerity. This report changes the focus. Here the focus is on the revenue side.The problem with the ‘no option but austerity’ line is that it thrusts national economies into downward spirals. There is another way. Public revenues can be boosted, if there is political will do so.

Annual Report 2010

05 April 2011

In the face of widening cuts to public services and attacks on the rights of public sector workers around the world, leaders of private and public sector trade unions, municipal governments and civil society groups made the unprecedented joint commitment to work together to promote investment in quality public services backed by fair taxation policies as the key solution to the economic crisis, and the best way to build peaceful, equitable, democratic and environmentally-sustainable societies.

Annual Report 2009

03 April 2010

Environmental and social sustainability provided the primary theme for PSI’s work in 2009. Leading into the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen in December, trade unions and civil society allies worked hard to ensure that world leaders would agree on an ambitious plan to reduce carbon emissions. Alas, this dream did not become reality. But we are committed to continuing this struggle and achieving real results.

Annual Report 2008

03 April 2009

Looking back at 2008 the one word that comes to mind is CHANGE. We saw a dramatic change in the global economy, it was the keyword in the US election and we initiated changes in PSI.