Three reasons to value tax privacy

High-profile calls to make everyone's tax return public knowledge are a mistake, says Matthew Lynn. We will miss tax privacy once it's gone.

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Jeremy Corbyn: scrutinising political journalists

In the end, David Cameron probably felt he had no choice but to publish his tax returns. The questions raised by the Panama Papers leak were not likely to go away until he made every last penny of his personal finances public. In the wake of his decision, other political leaders have followed suit. It may not stop with them.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.