An academic disliked an Oxford Very Short Introduction (145 pages) in his field so much that he wrote a 200 page book review attacking it. www.pierre-legrand.com/ewExternalFi...

This is the guy who gave Boris Johnson £1 million and then won a big MoD contract....

Absolutely shocking!

✨ @daisyogembo.bsky.social, Philip Mader and Fabrizio Santoro from @ids.ac.uk on Digital Public Infrastructure and Tax: high stakes and high rewards. 👉 buff.ly/p708dH8

Life’s getting a bit more crap here if you are a person from an ethnic minority 🧵

I find this so frustrating!

One thing you learn when you write a lot is that even if you anticipate a point lots of people will make in response to your argument, and even if you explicitly and repeatedly caveat your piece accordingly, people will still make that response.

Reminds me of this…

Raila Odinga, a former prime minister of Kenya and perennial presidential candidate whose populist campaigns challenged one-party rule, rattled authorities and gave him outsized influence on political life in the East African country, died Wednesday. https://to.pbs.org/4opOhcQ

Kenya has lost a towering figure in Raila Odinga. Definitely not a perfect person, but a pioneer of opposition politics and on balance a shepherd of Kenyan democracy. A huge void is left, but also a huge opportunity to take the next steps in democratic development. RIP

RM @meeks.house.gov: Raila Odinga was a renowned champion of freedom and justice who left an indelible mark on Kenya’s democracy. We mourn his passing and honor his lifelong commitment to public service and to inspiring a next generation of leaders working toward a fairer, more just society.

🌍 We’re in Cape Town until the 18th for the 10th ATRN Congress on Contemporary Taxation Issues in Africa! Our team will be speaking on panels, hosting a masterclass, and engaging with tax practitioners & researchers throughout the event. We also have a booth featuring our latest work - come say hi!

In yesterday's opening panel, ICTD's @daisyogembo.bsky.social said: “We need to put principles before platforms. When identity, payments, & data exchange ... are governed for inclusion & trust, the gains are not just higher revenues [but] stronger social contracts between governments & citizens.”

#ICYMI: We're delighted to share that we've signed an MoU with global research and advocacy network WIEGO, formalising our long-standing collaboration on research and informal sector taxation! 🎉 Read about it here 👉 ow.ly/z19W50WtR0L #TaxExperts #InformalEconomy #TaxPolicy #TaxResearch

One of my favourite stats about the global economy is that somewhere around half of world cross-border trade happens *within* rather than *between* firms. (to be specific, 44% of the US-international goods trade is related-party trade, per just-released 2024 data: www.census.gov/foreign-trad...)

Our Executive Director @giuliamascagni.bsky.social at Casa @devex.com yesterday: "It’s obviously very concerning to see a decline in aid but at the same time, it’s also important to remember that aid was never really going to be enough to fill the financing gap..." Read ➡️ ow.ly/P1iy50WiVFH #FfD4

📝NEW POLICY BRIEF: With tax now the main source of dev't finance, countries are under pressure to raise tax revenue fast. But done poorly, these could have damaging effects. The key is to tax smarter - but how? ➡️ ow.ly/2VCf50Wg8NU #FfD4 #Tax4Dev #TaxResearch

To be honest, this also very emblematic of one of the Conservatives' key problems right now - there's no thought, no actual attempt to understand what went wrong for them - just endless magic thinking based on nothing but misguided partisan-fuelled hope, chasing easy options that would fail anyway.

Delighted to have joined @ictdtax.bsky.social and looking forward to working with wonderful colleagues and the equally incredible partners in revenue authorities across Africa working to deliver change in tax administration!

Summary of the proposed welfare changes by the government today

Rent a chair hairdressers can undercut competition by paying no VAT amongst other tax benefits. Which is why the VAT threshold needs lowering substantially, to create a level playing field. From the FT by Laura Onita

The problem isn’t a lack of speed or a lack of will. It’s the lack of a coherent agenda and a superstitious attachment to self-denial ordinances (“we can’t raise taxes”). Send not to ask who is the smol bean, Wes. The smol bean is thee.

You don’t need some sort of Trumpy animal spirit to get stuff done here. You just need a plan and a willingness to push it through even if it upsets people. Starmer and Streeting can do more things, more easily, than Trump. They just abolished NHS England overnight!

As several people have pointed out, aside from everything else that’s wrong with this view, it’s just nuts that a Labour frontbencher should stand around gawping at how fast a US White House can move. A British govt with a towering Commons majority can do whatever it likes, however fast it likes.

IDS, in partnership with @sussex.ac.uk is no.1 in the world for Development Studies for the 9th year running! It reflects the strength of the teaching, research and our talented students from across the globe. Why not join them and come study with us! Read more: www.ids.ac.uk/news/ids-and...

Can taxpayer education improve compliance? Evidence from Rwanda shows that training new taxpayers significantly increases filing, reduces zero-tax reporting, and boosts tax due. Effects persist over time, driven by lower compliance costs and better tax knowledge.

📖 🚣 📖 Two more book talks coming up: If you're at Oxford or Cambridge in March, I'll be popping over to chat about "Smugglers and States - Negotiating the Maghreb at its Margins"! 🗓️ OX: 4 March, 17:00 (St Antony's / MEC) 🗓️ CAM: 13 March, 15:00 (CDS SG1/2) Details below:

Excited to share a new @ictdtax.bsky.social policy brief on simplified tax regimes in Africa, written with ICTD, WIEGO & World Bank colleagues and calling for a new policy conversation on one of the most widely applied and least understood tax types on the continent. www.ictd.ac/publication/...

A truly wonderful colleague. So brilliant, kind, and humble. A sad loss. Rest in peace Glen.

How do we build a business tax system for the 21st century? The IFS Residential Conference this April, in association with Deloitte, will bring together experts from policy, academia and business to discuss and debate corporation tax. ➡️ Find out more: ifs.org.uk/events/ifs-r...

Case note in the Industrial Law Journal by Prof. Hugh Collins, with a little help from me on tax, on employment status and the PGMOL case academic.oup.com/ilj/advance-...