Why tax justice matters in global economic development

The concept of tax justice has become a part of social and political currency in recent years. It reflects an increased awareness of the centrality of taxation to the affairs of the individual state – as a fiscal jurisdiction – and to the relationship between states within the global political economy. It has arguably moved up the agenda of the powerful block of developed states in the wake of the global crises which erupted in 2008 and which exposed the fiscal vulnerability of those states to the costs of structural and cyclical crisis management. Substantial budget deficits and growing accumulated sovereign debt have alerted the leaders of the major G8 states and of other OECD countries to the fundamental problem of maintaining the supply of public goods over time against the background of increased military expenditure, stagnating or dwindling revenues and increasing debt- servicing costs.