Finance and Tax Library Guide: Books

What Do We Know and What Should We Do About Tax Justice?

This book lays out what we know about the scale, history and impacts of tax abuse. From profit-shifting by multinational corporations to the exploitation of offshore tax havens. It sheds light on the people and organisations that enable tax abuse, and the stark social inequalities it creates.

Crucially, it also explores what we can do about it. What are the practical realities of challenging the threats of tax injustice and of holding abusers accountable? What are the policies and institutional shifts we need to see and fight for?

It is estimated that cross-border tax abuse accounts for around half a trillion dollars of lost revenue around the world each year. This is important. Alex Cobham shows us that tax is more than just business regulation or economic policy. It is a powerful tool for creating a fair and just society. It is our social superpower.

Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin

Bitcoin is resistance money, empowering its users to resist authoritarians, inflation, surveillance, censorship, and financial exclusion.

Resistance Money examines bitcoin’s monetary policy, censorship-resistance, privacy, inclusion, and energy use to develop a comprehensive and measured case that bitcoin is a net benefit to the world, despite its imperfections. Bitcoin isn’t just for criminals, speculators, or wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneurs – despite what the headlines say. It is, instead, a tool for anyone on the margins. The book is rigorous but accessible; Resistance Money is intended for all, from the clueless to the specialist, from the proponent to the die-hard skeptic, and everyone in between.

Introduction to Financial Analysis

This Open Textbook is a dynamic guide incorporating the essential skills needed to build a foundation in Financial Analysis. Students and readers will learn how to insightfully read a Financial Statement, utilize key financial ratios in order to derive forward-looking investment-related inferences from the accounting data, engage in elementary forecasting and modeling, master the theory of the Time Value of Money, and learn to price stocks and bonds in an environment in which interest rates constantly change. Ample problems and solutions, and review questions are provided to the student so that s/he can gauge his/her progress. This text will be continually updated in order to provide novel information and enhance students’ experiences.

Islamic Accounting and Finance: A Handbook

Islamic finance is one of the fastest-growing sectors in international banking and finance. Owing to the increasing availability and ease of access to Islamic services, Islamic finance has become increasingly important not only in Muslim countries, but around the world, making it a global industry. Under the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as well as in some regions, such as the Middle East and North Africa, a dual financial system is implemented, where Sharia-compliant products are marketed alongside conventional financial systems.

In this thoroughly researched collection of chapters, researchers from around the world examine the role of Islamic finance in the economies and prospects of different companies. They discuss Islamic finance literature from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The theoretical section of the book consists of conceptual chapters that enable readers to critically evaluate and expand their understanding of accounting and finance. The chapters in the empirical section of this handbook discuss and interpret empirical evidence to provide clear implications for practice, research, and society. This section bridges the gap between theory and practice and offers suggestions for future research. Islamic Accounting and Finance is geared towards scholars and students, but it is also of use to banking and finance practitioners.

Histories of Tax Evasion, Avoidance and Resistance

Tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax resistance are widespread phenomena in political, economic, social and fiscal history from antiquity through medieval, early modern and modern times. Histories of Tax Evasion, Avoidance and Resistance shows how different groups and individuals around the globe have succeeded or failed in not paying their due taxes, whether in kind or in cash, on their properties or on their crops.

It analyses how, throughout history, wealthy and poor taxpayers have tried to avoid or reduce their tax burden by negotiating with tax authorities, through practices of legal or illegal tax evasion, by filing lawsuits, seeking armed resistance or by migration, and how state authorities have dealt with such acts of claim making, defiance, open resistance or elusion. It fills an important research gap in tax history, addressing questions of tax morale and fairness, and how social and political inequality was negotiated through taxation. It gives rich insights into the development of citizen-state relationships throughout the course of history. The book comprises case studies from Ancient Athens, Roman Egypt, Medieval Europe, Early Modern Mexico, the Ottoman Empire, Nigeria under British colonial rule, the United Kingdom of the early 20th century, Greece during the Second World War, as well as West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States in the 20th century, including transnational entanglements in the world of late-modern offshore finance and taxation. The authors are experts in fiscal, economic, financial, legal, social and/or cultural history.

The book is intended for students, researchers and scholars of economic and financial history, social and world history and political economy.

Tax and Government in the 21st Century

Miranda Stewart explains how taxation finances government in the twenty-first century, exploring tax law in its historical, economic, and social context. Today, democratic tax states face an array of challenges, including the changing nature of work, the digitalisation and globalisation of the economy, and rebuilding after the fiscal crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stewart demonstrates the centrality of taxation for government budgets and explains key tax principles of equity, efficiency and administration. Presenting examples from a wide range of jurisdictions and international developments, Stewart shows how tax policy and law operate in our everyday lives, ranging from family and working life to taxing multinational enterprises in the global digital economy. Employing an interdisciplinary approach to the history and future of taxation law and policy, this is a valuable resource for legal scholars, practitioners and policy makers.

Social Media and Tax Law

The tax implications of social media are numerous and highly debated, spanning such issues as the taxation of influencers, digital barter, and digital services taxes. This book offers a detailed overall analysis of the tax implications of social media, taking into consideration the unique characteristics of social media platforms and companies. Offering a comprehensive overview of tax law as it relates to the specificities of social media, the book examines taxation of influencers, taxation of social media companies, value added tax implications of the digital barter, the role that can be played by Pigouvian taxes in the field of social media, as well as the employment of social media as a tool for tax compliance.

Widespread use of social media along with the proliferation of new social media platforms demonstrate the importance of social media tax law, and this book will be an important resource for tax administrations, lawyers, and researchers.

The Routledge Handbook of Financial Literacy

Financial literacy and financial education are not new topics, even though interest in these topics among policymakers, financial authorities, and academics continues to grow. The Routledge Handbook of Financial Literacy provides a comprehensive reference work that addresses both research perspectives and practical applications to financial education. This is the first volume to summarize the milestones of research in financial literacy from multiple perspectives to offer an overview.

The book is organized into six parts. The first three parts provide a conceptual framework, which discusses what financial literacy is, how it should be measured, and explains why it represents a relevant topic and effective tool in enhancing decision-making among consumers as well as consumer protection strategies. Part IV addresses the connection between financial education and financial literacy, with chapters about financial education in school settings as well as for adults. This part includes an analysis of the role of Fintech and the use of gamification in financial education. Part V is a collection of contributions that analyze financial literacy and financial education around the world, with a focus on geographical areas including the U.S., South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. This part also considers how financial literacy should be addressed in the case of Islamic finance. The concluding part of the book examines how financial literacy is related to other possible approaches to consumer finance and consumer protection, addressing the relationships between financial literacy and behavioral economics, financial well-being, and financial inclusion.

This volume is an indispensable reference for scholars who are new to the topic, including undergraduate and graduate students, and for experienced researchers who wish to enrich their knowledge, policymakers seeking a broader understanding and an international perspective, and practitioners who seek knowledge of best practices as well as innovative approaches.