21 July 2020

Today Oxfam launched a paper focused on the avoidance of Capital Gains Tax through Offshore Indirect Transfer – see below for  a link to the report.

The paper was developed as part of the MoneyTrail project from Oxfam Novib in partnership with Finance Uncovered (a UK-based investigative journalism organization). It focuses on demonstrating how Capital Gains Tax is commonly avoided through Offshore Indirect Transfer in developing countries – a technique that utilizes intermediary entities in tax havens.

The report goes through seven examples in different developing countries (India, Uganda, Namibia, Vietnam and Peru) highlighting how multinational companies avoided Capital Gains Taxes and the measures taken by countries to recover the tax. Revenue losses have been estimated to close to $2.2 billion only for the seven country cases, showing the scale of the impact for developing countries. The paper offers policy options that countries can utilize to strengthen their legal situation and presents recommendations for developing countries on their domestic legislation and tax treaty network.

Oxfam Capital Gains Tax Report