Quotes of the month

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Quotes of the month

"There is a certain section of civil society that undoubtedly believes that all transparency is good and the more the better. But it has to be remembered that information on, for example, product pricing models can be competitively sensitive, and should be protected as such."

Alan McLean, executive vice president of taxation and corporate structure at Shell, sounds a note of caution in the tax transparency debate.

"Guernsey is ahead of the curve and we look forward to other jurisdictions stepping up to the mark so that we can help create a level playing field on beneficial ownership."

Fiona Le Poidevin, chief executive of Guernsey Finance, raises the bar by thinking outside the box and digging down to break the world record for number of PR clichés in one sentence.

"Some high profile digital companies have indulged in BEPS strategies... [But this] does not make the digitised economy itself a cause of BEPS, but [the OECD] has yet to take the sensible step of entirely decoupling the subjects."

Glynn Fullelove, group director of tax at Informa, urges clarity in discussions of the OECD approach to tackling the tax challenges associated with the digital economy.

"Over half of the Conservative party's funding comes from the financial sector and our worry is that [UK Chancellor, George] Osborne is defending the city against the wider interests of Britain."

Simon Chouffot, of the Robin Hood Tax campaign, airs his fears in relation to progress on a European financial transaction tax.
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More from across our site

ITR’s most interesting stories of the year covered ‘landmark’ legal battles, pillar two, AI’s relationship with transfer pricing and more
Chinwe Odimba-Chapman was announced as Michael Bates’ successor; in other news, a report has found a high level of BEPS compliance among OECD jurisdictions
The tool, which will automatically compute amount B returns, requires “only minimal data inputs”, according to the OECD
The rules are intended to implement the substance of an earlier OECD report in its entirety
While new technology won’t replace the human touch, it could help relieve companies’ staffing issues, EY’s David Helmer and Daren Campbell tell ITR
The firm said the financial growth came from increased demand for its AI services and global tax reform advice
Chrystia Freeland had also been the figurehead of Canada’s controversial digital services tax adoption, which stoked economic tensions with the US
Panama has no official position on pillar two so far and a move to implement in Costa Rica will face rejection, experts tell ITR
The KPMG partner tells ITR about Sri Lanka’s complex and evolving tax landscape, setting legal precedents through client work, and his vision for the future of tax
Overall turnover at the firm also reached a record £8 billion; in other news, Ashurst and Dentons announced senior tax partner hires
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