Financial Transparency Coalition

Richard Murphy reports that the EU parliament has passed a resolution in support of country-by-country reporting. From his blog:

The EU Parliament has voted by 283 votes to 278 votes for a resolution on development issues that called for:

a new binding, global financial agreement which forces transnational corporations, including their various subsidiaries, to automatically disclose the profits made and the taxes paid on a country-by-country basis, so as to ensure transparency about sales, profits and taxes.

Good news.

This is indeed good news. However,...

COLUMN - Drugs, terrorism and shadow banking: Bernd Debusmann Reuters, March 26, 2010

Germany, Switzerland agree double taxation deal Reuters, March 26, 2010

Swiss-German tax deal does not cover stolen bank data Reuters, March 26, 2010

IRS Shifts Enforcement Focus To Asia The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2010

Op-Ed: Taxman missing the boat on offshore income The Globe and Mail, March 26, 2010

Philippines changes law, wants off tax-haven blacklist Reuters, March 26 2010

Tax Plans Could Hit India Investors The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2010

Cayman...

Hundreds of billions that could have been used for poverty alleviation and economic development lost, finds new report from Global Financial Integrity

WASHINGTON, DC -- Africa lost $854 billion in illicit financial outflows from 1970 through 2008, according to a new report to be released today from Global Financial Integrity (GFI). Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: Hidden Resource for Development debuts new estimates for volume and patterns of illicit financial outflows from Africa, building upon GFI’s ground-breaking 2009 report, Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002-2006, which estimated that developing countries were losing as much as...

Today, the Foreign Minister of Norway unequivocally declared that illicit financial flows channeled through tax havens are a significant impediment to economic development in the developing world. In a speech before the Storting, the Norwegian Parliament, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre stated:

Illicit capital flows, frequently channelled through tax havens, are a significant obstacle to economic and social progress in many developing countries. This has become even more apparent during the financial crisis. Increasing attention is being paid to the problem of tax evasion in countries such as the US, the UK and...