Kenyan Youth to Billionaires: Pay Up for the Planet
The Big Picture: Nairobi just became ground zero for a fresh fight over who foots the climate bill. During this week’s UN Tax Convention negotiations, a coalition of Kenyan youth activists and Greenpeace Africa demanded a new levy on the super-rich and the oil majors to bankroll climate action, calling today’s rules “outdated and unjust,” EnviroNews Nigeria reports.
The Details:
- The activists want a global tax framework that closes loopholes, letting billionaires and fossil-fuel giants shift profits offshore.
- Their push took place alongside COP30 in Brazil, amplifying wider debates over climate-finance responsibility.
- Speakers argued that current treaties allow “major polluters to dodge their fair share,” insisting revenue could fund mitigation projects across the Global South.
Why It Matters: The reaction was swift: development NGOs applauded the call, while several negotiators cautioned that rewriting tax treaties is “easier said than done.” Yet the message underscores growing pressure on both the OECD and national governments to pair climate goals with tougher anti-avoidance rules.
Around the Tax World
• White House Work-Arounds: The Trump administration is quietly delivering hefty tax breaks to crypto firms and private-equity giants through regulatory tweaks, not new laws, raising deficit alarms among critics (Economic Times).
• UAE Joins Crypto Transparency Club: Abu Dhabi will start automatic information exchange on digital-asset accounts under the OECD’s CRS 2.0 and CARF regimes beginning in 2028, widening the net on offshore crypto holdings (Gulf News).
• Viagogo’s £15 Million Encore: HMRC hit two UK divisions of ticket-resale marketplace Viagogo with a £15 million bill after a transfer-pricing probe into 2016-18 intragroup charges (The Guardian).
• India Keeps the Band Together: New Delhi is holding its transfer-pricing tolerance band steady for AY 2025-26, a move the Finance Ministry says brings “predictability and fewer disputes” for multinationals (The Hindu Business Line).
Tax Stat of the Day
15,000,000, the number of British pounds Viagogo now owes HMRC after its transfer-pricing adjustment.
Looking Ahead
All eyes are on the next UN Tax Convention draft, due early 2026, to see whether climate-linked wealth taxes make the cut. Until then, expect more noise, and likely more numbers, on how to tax the planet’s biggest emitters.