Richard Murphy (political economist)

Richard Murphy (born 1958) is an economist who advises the TUC on economics and taxation, and a long-standing member of the Tax Justice Network. He is a Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University London.

In 2015, many of his ideas were taken up by Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn.^[1]

Early life

Richard Murphy was born in 1958 and brought up in Ipswich.^[2][3] His undergraduate degree was in Economics and Accountancy at the University of Southampton, and further trained at KPMG becoming a Chartered Accountant.^[3][4]

Career

For much of his early career he was an accountant in Downham Market, Norfolk. In 1985 he co-founded an acccountancy firm which became Murphy Deeks Nolan. The company was sold in 2000. Murphy was also the founder of a company that became the European distributor for the game Trivial Pursuit.^[3]

Since 2003 Murphy has become more involved in economic and taxation policy issues.^[4] He was a co-founder of the Tax Justice Network.^[5] He is the director of Tax Research LLP.^[6] However, because Tax Research LLP is a Limited Liability Partnership he is technically the designated member rather than a director. The only other member of Tax Research LLP is Mrs Jacqueline Murphy.^[7]

Murphy was named by International Tax Review magazine as the seventh most significant person having influence on tax policy, practice and administration in 2013.^[5][8]

Murphy claimed he was the subject of sexual discrimination by the BBC after not being invited to participate on a Newsnight tax debate in November 2012. According to Murphy the BBC cited "gender balance" as a reason for instead inviting his junior female colleague.^[9]

In September 2015, Murphy was appointed Professor of Practice in International Political Economy in the Department of International Politics at City University London, as a part-time appointment involving research and teaching.^[10] Previously he had been a visiting fellow at University of Portsmouth Business School, the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex, and at the Tax Research Institute at the University of Nottingham.^[4]

Public policy

Murphy is a promoter of financial reform, with specific emphasis given to tax avoidance/evasion. He is well known for his estimates that "£25 billion is lost annually from tax avoidance".^[11] This is substantially larger than HM Revenue and Customs' estimate of £2.7 billion,^[12] and his estimate has been dismissed by HMRC.^[13] Murphy claims that HMRC insiders have suggested to him that £300 million additional investment in the department could recoup £8 billion in unpaid tax.^[14]

His methodology has been criticised by other groups, including the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation in their December 2012 publication The Tax Gap for Corporation Tax,^[15] and right-wing think tanks like the TaxPayers' Alliance which claim he has failed to take into account double taxation relief on overseas profits and for including taxes not paid in the same tax year as the profits were earned,^[16] and the Institute for Fiscal Studies which cited his estimate of the corporate tax gap for the TUC as one which was "likely overstated (possibly by a wide margin)".^[17]

Murphy advocates "country by country reporting", as a means to increase financial transparency to reduce tax avoidance and evasion.^[18][19] In 2013, the OECD and G8 endorsed a form of country by country reporting.^[5]

In 2015, many of his ideas were taken up as proposed policies by Jeremy Corbyn, who subsequently became Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition, some under the name People's Quantitative Easing.^[1][20] This is a broader development of a policy Murphy launched in 2010, called Green Quantitative Easing, and later the Green New Deal.^[20][21]

Murphy is in favour of a land value tax, which would tax land based only on its value, and not on the buildings on it, in order to discourage land hoarding and promote building in areas in need of more housing. It is also very difficult to evade.^[22][23]

He has written in favour of removing high-denomination notes such as the £50 note as they are used widely for tax evasion, saying "there is not a shadow of a doubt that vast amounts of cash" is used for illegal purposes.^[24][25]

Media Commentary

Murphy writes for the The Guardian, and was a blogger for Forbes.com from January 2010 to November 2011.^[26]

Murphy has been criticised for writing articles in The Guardian on minimising tax in situations such as being self-employed or employing a nanny.^[27] In 2001, Murphy wrote an article in the Observer recommending that parents set up a personal service company for their nanny, as an alternative to illegal cash in hand payments, to avoid income tax and national insurance contributions.^[28]

On the other hand, Murphy has been widely praised by commentators on the left, being described by the Daily Mirror journalist, Kevin Maguire, as an "heroic figure" ^[29] and the Guardian journalist, Polly Toynbee, has called him a "tireless campaigner".^[30]

Personal life

Murphy is a Quaker.^[1][31] He lives with his wife, a GP, and two children in Downham Market.^[3]

Publications

• Murphy, Richard (2011). The Courageous State. Searching Finance. ISBN 1-907720-28-6. 
• Palan, Ronen; Richard Murphy; Christian Chavagneux (2009). Tax Havens: How Globalization Really Works. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-7612-7. 
• Murphy, Richard. "Why is Country-by-Country financial reporting by Multinational Companies so important?" (PDF). Tax Research LLP. 
• Murphy, Richard. "Location, location – Campaigner Richard Murphy proposes a radical new International Accounting Standard that would require reporting turnover and tax by location" (PDF). accountancymagazine.com. 

References

External links

• Tax Research UK