Financial Transparency Coalition

Some estimates suggest that illegal fishing causes an­nual financial losses of up to USD 23.5 billion. Much of this activity is carried out by large industrial fishing ves­sels which operate internationally. It results in a major loss of revenue and the effects on coastal states and the poorest countries, in particular, can be seen throughout the world. Illegal fishing (or illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, often referred to as IUU fishing) ignores nation­al jurisdictions and international agreements to manage marine resources. The effects on coastal states and their communities can be seen throughout the world. Developing countries are especially hurt,...

Federal prosecutors in New York have opened a criminal probe of one of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brothers, raising the stakes in Washington's sometimes-contentious dealings with the Karzai government.

TJN has written plenty on the subject of how jurisdictions obtain and transmit information between each other for tax purposes. The OECD is pushing its extremely weak “on request” form of information exchange, while TJN and its partners support the far better and stronger alternative, automatic information exchange. TJN now presents a new briefing paper, written by Markus Meinzer, which explores the intricacies of automatic tax information exchange. In order to raise awareness and remedy the apparent lack of information about and understanding of AIE, TJN is starting a precedent case project. Ultimately, its aim is to accompany a...

Terminology is essential to any serious action against secrecy jurisdictions. The term of secrecy jurisdiction is relatively recent and we owe it to Tax Justice Network and others, which have demonstrated the important secrecy component of a certain number of jurisdictions. The term tends to replace “offshore centres”, a more descriptive and a bit misleading expression which does not refer to offshore islands but tries to depict the role of the centre as a financial intermediary in a trade conducted elsewhere, with most assets and most liabilities being invested or held abroad. The advocacy value of the term...