This article retraces the controversies that followed the arrival of 400 US multinational enterpr... more This article retraces the controversies that followed the arrival of 400 US multinational enterprises in Switzerland around 1960. If US firms were present all over Europe, many chose Switzerland to locate regional headquarters and special «base companies» that transferred revenues and profits originating from other subsidiaries in order to benefit from low taxation levels and avoid costly repatriation in the United States. These tax deferral practices were considered by the Kennedy administration as harmful tax evasion and led to diplomatic and public condemnations of the Swiss «tax haven». This article analyzes how multinational enterprises, international tax experts as well as Swiss financial and diplomatic circles resisted US attempts to fight tax evasion at the domestic, bilateral and multilateral levels. It shows in particular how Swiss diplomats were able to water down US demands to fight tax evasion in the Fiscal Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the key forum for multilateral tax issues. The controversy surrounding «base companies» and the failure to curtail capital flight and tax evasion underscore the long-term resilience of the Swiss tax haven vis-à-vis international pressure.
This article retraces the controversies that followed the arrival of 400 US multinational enterpr... more This article retraces the controversies that followed the arrival of 400 US multinational enterprises in Switzerland around 1960. If US firms were present all over Europe, many chose Switzerland to locate regional headquarters and special «base companies» that transferred revenues and profits originating from other subsidiaries in order to benefit from low taxation levels and avoid costly repatriation in the United States. These tax deferral practices were considered by the Kennedy administration as harmful tax evasion and led to diplomatic and public condemnations of the Swiss «tax haven». This article analyzes how multinational enterprises, international tax experts as well as Swiss financial and diplomatic circles resisted US attempts to fight tax evasion at the domestic, bilateral and multilateral levels. It shows in particular how Swiss diplomats were able to water down US demands to fight tax evasion in the Fiscal Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the key forum for multilateral tax issues. The controversy surrounding «base companies» and the failure to curtail capital flight and tax evasion underscore the long-term resilience of the Swiss tax haven vis-à-vis international pressure.
Arni, Caroline; Leimgruber, Matthieu; Teuscher, Simon (2017). Editorial zu Neue Beiträge zur Sozialgeschichte = Nouvelles contributions à l'histoire sociale. Schweizerisches Jahrbuch für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, 32:7-13., 2017
Nach einer Phase, in der kulturgeschichtliche Ansatze ins Zentrum der Geschichtswissenschaft ger... more Nach einer Phase, in der kulturgeschichtliche Ansatze ins Zentrum der Geschichtswissenschaft geruckt waren, lasst sich wieder ein starkeres Interesse fur Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte feststellen. Forschende mussen sich allerdings vielfaltigen Herausforderungen stellen, insbesondere dem mittlerweile tiefen Graben zwischen der okonomisch interessierten Geschichtswissenschaft und den historisch interessierten «economics». Dieses Themenheft von traverse bringt Beitrage zusammen, welche Interaktionen zwischen drei klassischen Themen der Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte untersuchen: Unternehmen, Institutionen und Territorien. Auf diese Weise will das Themenheft einen Beitrag zur Debatte uber die soziale und geografische Einbettung unternehmerischer Tatigkeiten in verschiedenen historischen Epochen leisten.
Die traverse lancierte im Jahr 2010 eine Reihe von vier historiographischen Sonderheften. Nach de... more Die traverse lancierte im Jahr 2010 eine Reihe von vier historiographischen Sonderheften. Nach der Wirtschaftsgeschichte (1/2010), der Sozialgeschichte (1/2011) und der Kulturgeschichte (1/2012) wird die Reihe mit einem Heft zur Politikgeschichte (1/2013) abgeschlossen. In 14 Artikeln werden Themen aus dem Mittelalter, der Neuzeit, der Sattelzeit und der Zeitgeschichte aufgenommen. Die Beitrage bieten Forschungsuberblicke zur Geschichte der Parteien und der politischen Bewegungen, der Militargeschichte, der Rechtsgeschichte, der staatsburgerlichen Rechte und der Staatsburgerschaft, den auswartigen Beziehungen, der Neutralitat, der schweizerischen Mitarbeit in internationalen Organisationen, des Service Publics, des Parlamentes und der Verfassung, der Religionsgeschichte und des Sakularismus, der Umwelt und zur Konstruktion von Geschichte und nationaler Indentitat. Zusatzlich werden die beiden Arbeitsinstrumente Diplomatische Dokumente der Schweiz und das Jahrbuch Schweizerische Poli...
Based on original sources from national and international organizations archives, this paper offe... more Based on original sources from national and international organizations archives, this paper offers a new perspective on debates on tax evasion in multilateral arenas during the whole 20th Century. A closer look at the cycles of emergence and disappearance of this topic enables to understand why these discussions were raised inside international organizations and why they constantly failed. This paper focuses in particular on the foundation of tax multilateralism at the League of Nations (1922-1928) and the early activities of the OEEC Fiscal Committee (1956-1963), as well as on OECD efforts to increase international cooperation against tax evasion practices from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. In three cases, multilateral initiatives against tax evasion faced unyielding opposition by business interests and tax haven countries such as Switzerland. However, in order to explain the failure of the regulations, we have also to take into account the interests of big countries in maintain...
This chapter considers the intellectual roots of the welfare state in changing views about states... more This chapter considers the intellectual roots of the welfare state in changing views about states and their competences from the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth centuries. This happens in particular national contexts, with differing patterns of both democratization and bureaucratization. From the beginning, we can observe patterns of international learning and policy transfer. This process is traced through a number of national cases: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the English-speaking nations, Sweden and the United States. Although the welfare state has come to be identified with social citizenship and ‘social justice’, its ideational and normative roots are much more diverse and contested than this. And although the welfare state came to be identified with social democrats, especially after 1945, its origins more usually lie with liberal, or even conservative, forces and ideas.
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