July 2nd, 2014
In the process to revise Europe's 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD), European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to approve the creation of public registers of information on the real owners of companies, trusts, and other legal entities in the EU. Public registers of the beneficial owners (real owners), would help greatly in the fight against corruption, trafficking, tax evasion, and other types of illicit financial flows that are perpetrated with the help of anonymous companies with hidden ownership.
However, the European Parliament's input is only one piece of the puzzle.
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June 26th, 2014
For a while now, we've been
writing about the ongoing effort by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to create new standards for the exchange of tax and financial information between countries. The new system would help clamp down on corrupt individuals that hide their money in countries with strict secrecy laws and low tax rates.
While there are many questions still remaining about implementation, one thing is clear:
developing countries must be included. Some of the largest cases of illicit financial flows involve money being siphoned...
June 24th, 2014
FTC coordinating member,
Tax Justice Network just released June's edition of TaxCast, a monthly podcast covering tax and transparency issues from around the globe.
This month's edition covers a wide range of topics, including Thomas Piketty's new book on wealth inequality,
Capital in the 21st Century, FIFA's role as a temporary tax haven, and the OECD process towards automatic information exchange.
June 13th, 2014
A new report in
The Economist goes to great lengths to detail the corrupt regime of
ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, as well as the broader systematic corruption that has plagued the country since the end of the Soviet era.
