Richard J. Murphy

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Biographical Information

"A graduate in Economics and Accountancy from Southampton University he was articled to Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co in London. He subsequently founded a firm of accountants in London which he and his partners sold in 2000. In parallel with his practice career Richard was chairman, chief executive or finance director of more than ten SMEs.

"Since 2003 Richard has been increasingly involved in economic and taxation policy issues. He was a founder of the Tax Justice Network and is director of Tax Research LLP which undertakes work on taxation policy, advocacy and research for aid agencies, unions, NGOs and others in the UK and abroad...

"As principal researcher of the Tax Justice Network from its inception until 2009 Richard helped put the tax haven issue on the international agenda as principal author of such works as ‘Tax Us If You Can’, ‘Closing the Floodgates’, ‘Creating Turmoil’ and the extensive analysis underpinning TJN’s Secrecy Jurisdictions website and its Financial Secrecy Index. During the course of this work he defined what a secrecy jurisdiction is and this term has as a result been widely used in international dialogue on tackling tax abuse through what were previously known as tax havens. The practical consequences of this work can be seen in changes imposed upon the tax systems of locations such as Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, all resulting from his exposure of their failure to comply with international requirements.

"Richard’s work for the TUC, PCS and others on the tax gap in the United Kingdom has also put this issue on the UK tax agenda. It was not part of taxation debate until the TUC published his report ‘The Missing Billions’ in 2008. It is now the main priority of H M Revenue & Customs’ business plan.

"Richard is also a principal author of many of the proposals made by the Green New Deal group in the UK, which has had a significant influence on political debate in the UK and beyond. He has written extensively on tackling the UK’s deficit without imposing cuts on the most vulnerable in society...

"Richard has been a visiting fellow at Portsmouth University Business School, the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex and at the Tax Research Institute, University of Nottingham.

"He is a co-author of ‘Tax Havens: How Globalization Really Works‘, Cornell University Press, 2009. He is now working on a new book entitled ‘The Joy of Tax’."

In 2011 he published The Courageous State: Rethinking Economics, Society and the Role of Government.

• Advisory Panel, Climate Bonds Initiative
• Contributor, Labour Left
• National Advisory Panel, Centre for Labour and Social Studies

Sources of funding

Richard writes that "main sources of funding" for his work include:

• The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust in the form of a two year grant to undertake research on and to promote tax reform for the relief of poverty;
• The Trade Union Congress, who I advise on taxation issues;
• The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development (in turn funded by the Norwegian government) mainly for research work on country-by-country reporting and related issues;
• The Network for Social Change (in partnership with Colin Hines through Finance for the Future LLP) for research work promoting the use of bonds and other innovative forms of funding for green infrastructure development;
• PCS (the Public and Commercial Services Union) mainly for work on the tax gap;
• Occasional consultancy work for NGOs and other organisations, such as universities, on taxation and accounting issues relating to development ( recent examples including Christian Aid, Action Aid Sweden, Ibis Denmark, Greenpeace International and Manchester University);
• Other occasional research grants from NGOs;
• Fees for broadcasting and journalism.