Tax and Terrorism: A New Partnership?

Michelle Gallant, University of Manitoba School of Law

Abstract

The global chase for terrorist assets has shed light on a link between tax and terrorism. Tax havens have been associated with terrorist finance, identified as potential centres for filtrating terrorist assets and for enabling the cross-border movement of the resources destined for terrorist enterprises. Complex multi-jurisdictional financial transactions have become the venues for the merger of terrorist finance with other mobile capital, its criminally ordained purpose hidden midst the convolutions of international tax and related transactions.

To many the mechanics of tax is an inaccessible subject. It consists of a complex matrix of laws best left to the professional few who choose to play within its increasingly intricate confines. Adding the gyrations of international tax dealings to the mix multiples the complexities. And when tax converges with terrorist finance, a domain previously reasonably ignored by international criminal law policy suddenly comes under scrutiny as part of the global anti-terrorism initiative. In illuminating this fusion of two discrete disciplines, this article tentatively explores the contours of the emerging relationship between taxation and terrorist finance.