Tax Wars: Confronting Power

The Friederich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and Goethe-Institut invite you to a free screening of the 2024 documentary Tax Wars (dir. Hege Dehli) followed by a panel discussion with Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz and distinguished members of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation.
In the past 40 years, multinational corporations have shaken up the global economy. They have become immensely wealthy, earning over $3 trillion in profits each year. Yet, they pay hardly any taxes. Strangely, governments seem powerless in the face of tax evasion, which deprives them of hundreds of billions in revenue, while inequalities, poverty and populism are on the rise. With taxes cut to the bone, governments no longer have the means to finance healthcare and education for all, pensions, let alone the fight against climate change, which has taken on an existential dimension.
Finding funds for a fairer and more sustainable society is nevertheless possible: all it takes is to put an end to the tax evasion of multinationals. This is the preoccupation of a handful of NGOs and international experts. In 2015, these “knights of tax justice” established the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), bringing together top economists like Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and Thomas Piketty, author of the global bestseller Capital in the Twenty-First Century, as well as former politicians Eva Joly in France, Martín Guzmán, Wayne Swan and José Antonio Ocampo, former ministers of finance in Argentina, Australia and Colombia, respectively.
Their goal? To ensure that multinational corporations finally pay their fair share of taxes. To that end, they propose creating a global tax on the profits of multinationals. Initially dismissed as dreamers, these activists keep on fighting – drafting reports, pressuring ministers and holding conferences, as they emphasize the urgency of reforming the global tax system.
After six years, they succeed in making their proposals, long dismissed as utopian, the backbone of a historic agreement adopted in October 2021 by 136 countries, an agreement that sets a global minimum tax on the profits of multinationals. This measure is expected to generate $220 billion in tax revenue for governments and potentially put an end to tax havens. For ICRICT, this agreement is not enough, but it is the first major change in a hundred years, and the status quo of tax evasion has been disrupted.
Combining filming on four continents and futuristic animations inspired by the Star Wars universe, Tax Wars tells the story of how the ideas of these activists have gradually succeeded and turned public opinion against the most powerful actors in the global economy, in order to end the heist of the century.
Following the screening (53 min) there will be a question and answer session with ICRICT Commissioners followed by a reception.

PANELISTS

Mr. Daniel Bertossa is General Secretary of Public Services International (PSI), elected at the World Congress in October 2023. He has been with PSI for over a decade, previously as Assistant General Secretary, leading policy, advocacy, and governance, with a focus on trade, tax, debt, and the future of quality public services. Raised in Adelaide, Australia, Bertossa worked as an organizer and national officer for unions in Australia and the UK, leading campaigns for better pay, job security, and against outsourcing. He also served as Director of Policy and Strategy for the Government of South Australia and as Ministerial Advisor on public sector management, local government, planning, Aboriginal affairs, and social services. A strong media voice for workers, he contributes to outlets such as Le Monde, The Guardian, and The Hindu. He serves on ICRICT’s steering committee and holds advisory roles with GRI, CREW (University of Greenwich), and CICTAR.

Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University, with appointments in the Business School, Department of Economics, and School of International and Public Affairs. He serves as Co-President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. Awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on markets with asymmetric information, Stiglitz also contributed as a lead author to the 1995 IPCC Report, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He previously served as Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank and Chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton. A pioneer of “The Economics of Information,” Stiglitz has profoundly influenced macroeconomics, development, and inequality research. Author of numerous acclaimed books, he has held professorships at Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, and Oxford, and holds over 40 honorary doctorates, including from Cambridge and Oxford.

Mr. Armand Zorn has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2021 and represents the constituency of Frankfurt am Main I. He has been Deputy Chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag since May 2025. In his role as deputy leader of the parliamentary group, he is responsible for digital affairs and state modernization, economy and energy, transport and tourism. His political focus is on international economic policy, transformation financing and future topics such as AI and new technologies. Armand Zorn was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon and came to Germany at the age of 12. He studied politics and history at Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg, Sciences Po Paris, the University of Konstanz and John Hopkins University SAIS, specializing in international economics. His professional career has taken him to Hong Kong, Macau and France, as well as to the management consultancy PwC and as a project manager in development cooperation.

Dr. Magdalena Sepúlveda is Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and a member of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT). She previously served as Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and as UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (2008–2014). With over 25 years’ experience at the intersection of poverty, development, and human rights, she has worked with the UN, international organizations, and NGOs worldwide. Her roles have included Research Director at the International Council on Human Rights Policy, staff attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and Co-Director of the Department of International Law and Human Rights United Nations-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. Sepúlveda holds a PhD in International Law from Utrecht University, an LL.M. from the University of Essex, and a postgraduate diploma from the Universidad Católica de Chile.

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Goethe-Institut New York, 30 Irving Place, New York, United States

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