Scholarship@WashULaw

Document Type

Book Review

Language

English (en)

Publication Date

2016

Publication Title

Texas Law Review

Abstract

This essay reviews Gabriel Zucman's The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens. Zucman's important new book brings clarity to a confusing subject -- but occasionally does so at the expense of nuance. My review has three goals. First, I summarize and appraise Zucman's central findings, and re-estimate his revenue-loss totals for the United States using tax-rate assumptions that I believe are more realistic. Second, I position Zucman's findings against the backdrop of the wider literatures on tax havens and inequality, and attempt to answer the two questions in this essay's title. Third, I comment on Zucman's call for a global registry covering the ownership of financial securities. I argue that such a proposal must contend with the fact that there is no international legal consensus on what constitutes ownership.

Keywords

Tax, Tax Law, Tax Havens, Taxation, Inequality

Publication Citation

Conor Clarke, What Are Tax Havens and Why Are They Bad? (Book Review), 95 Tex. L. Rev. 59 (2016)

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