Financial Transparency Coalition

The Huffington Post posted today a 12-step plan to cut the US deficit by 1 trillion dollars by 2015. It is a definitely must read. Some clips:

Implement the President’s and Congress’s International Tax Reforms
The president should eliminate tax breaks for companies that keep profits overseas, and Congress should tax corporations that are managed and operated in the U.S. as U.S. companies and drastically increase reporting of offshore income. Savings by 2015: $557.9 billion

Implement Surtax on Corporate Book-Tax Gap
Place a small tax on the dollar amount that is the gap between what a corporation reports to its shareholders and what it reports to the IRS (which is usually a lot smaller). Savings by 2015: $15 Billion

Close The Carried Interest Loophole
Tax a major source of income for hedge-fund managers at the same rate that all other Americans are taxed on their income, not at 15%. Savings by 2015: $15.6 billion.

The $557.6 billion figure is by far the highest in the Huffington Post’s twelve recommendations, constituting over half of the total sum of savings. This demonstrates that global tax evasion is not just a problem for the developing world: the loss of important tax revenue hurts us here at home too. A crack down should be at the front of any domestic deficit reduction debate. Hopefully, the austerity of lean times will serve as an impetus for long-needed change.