Welcome to the Youth Tax Justice Network!

(en francais)
We are a growing group of youth and students concerned with the issues of tax justice. Formed as an outcome of the 2007 World Social Forum, we work alongside the international Tax Justice Network and its sister networks. We seek to link young people into the campaign for a global financial system that enables citizen representation, sustainable fiscal policy, and more equitable societies. ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
Please explore our site-- read articles written by members from around the world, participate in our campaigns, and learn the language of tax with us. Contribute yourself or find out more by contacting us at youthtaxjustice@gmail.com. tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

Why Campaign for Tax Justice?

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Estimates of annual cross-border dirty money flows top $1 trillion. A complex web of tax havens, secret bank accounts, and hidden ownership structures strips governments of revenue and enables corruption on a massive scale. Meanwhile, around half of world trade passes through tax havens—using transfer pricing, mispricing, and fake transactions, corporations evade taxes and keep value in the hands of a tiny elite.
The structures which support capital flight, profit-shifting, and tax evasion provide the supply-side of corruption. They provide the means for leaders to take control of the resources of their country and shift them out of the reach of the wider population. They allow networks of criminals and terrorists to threaten global peace and security. They permit multinational corporations to fleece their shareholders and employees. The current structures of offshore finance and the inadequate policing of dirty money mean “only the little people pay taxes,” while the profits of large corporations, corrupt elites, and criminals accrue safely hidden away in secret bank accounts.
Indeed, despite the high-profile rhetoric about the importance of development aid, the fact is that there is a net capital flow from poor countries to rich countries—and not the other way around. While aid flows to poor countries in recent years have averaged around $100 billion annually, five times that amount flows out of developing and transitional economies every year.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

YTJN Objectives

Built upon the main precepts of the wider international Tax Justice Network, the Youth Tax Justice Network aims:

  • to promote links between interested youth and students around the world, particularly involving developing countries;
  • to raise the level of awareness about the secretive world of offshore finance and its effects;
  • to foster a debate among students and youth on issues related to taxation and global finance;
  • to provide a platform for building and sharing research;
  • to encourage, support, and document local, national, and international campaign activity;
  • to record the coverage of tax justice issues in university and other curricula;
  • to link YTJN activities to the wider international network


YTJN espouses the Tax Justice Network Declaration:

Part 1: “Only the little people pay taxes…”

Part 2: A manifesto for tax justice

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Why have a Youth and Student Network?

What can we bring as students?

Students often lie at the nexus of research and activism due to the fact that institutions of higher education can provide both the academic setting for learning as well as a community that facilitates the formation of discussion networks, activist groups, and other societies and clubs. Including students as part of the wider TJN benefits the global movement in several ways:

  1. Students are frequently looking for new areas to research—TJN focuses on building the field of knowledge in issues connected to tax and the supply side of corruption and would benefit from new researchers.
  2. After university, many students will work in industries such as banking and finance, the civil service, NGOs, and so on. If they have already had the chance to hear about tax justice issues, this has the potential to affect either their career choice or their impact on their chosen field.
  3. Student groups often have strong campaign experience and can help to build public awareness of issues such as the need to change global perceptions of corruption.

What about other young people?

The spirit of a civil society network is such that people bring the skills and knowledge they have to stand in solidarity with others. All young people are welcome to learn from and with the network, contribute to its debates and research projects, and discuss with others how to advance its objectives.

Why a network specifically for students and youth?

Student and youth campaigning requires materials designed for university and other youth-specific settings. There is a need for complex research materials, of course, but in addition, the network needs materials that give students and other young people an entry into the subject.

Besides the importance of students working on TJN issues, connecting students internationally builds solidarity and opens channels of communication that often do not exist. When students discuss issues through a network they have built and developed, it creates increased global awareness and exchange. A major priority for the network is to connect students from different regions, across linguistic, cultural, and other barriers, which often cause other social and youth movements to exist in isolation from one another.

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