Financial Transparency Coalition

How international pressure is helping to open up Switzerland, but more is needed to make a real dent in international poverty.

In 2006 the Global Forum published a review of the legal and administrative frameworks in the areas of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes covering 82 jurisdictions, entitled Tax Co-operation: Towards a Level Playing Field – 2006 Assessment by the Global Forum on Taxation. This publication was followed by four annual assessments, with the 2010 publication covering 93 jurisdictions. Following the restructuring of the Global Forum, a program of indepth peer reviews was launched in 2010. This 2011 Report on Progress publication describes the progress made since the Global Forum launched its peer review mechanism in 2010.

The Task Force 2011 Conference section of this website has now been updated in both English and French. It will remain on this site as a product of the successful conference and valuable resource both for attendees and those who could not make it to Paris.

The World Bank’s private-sector entity - the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - seeks to increase tax payments to the government in developing countries through supporting their natural resource projects. This report documents that this aim can be undermined by IFCclients’ tax planning. IFC’s response is that “it is not likely to be true in almost all projects within the extractive industries”. IFC wants to “create opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives” through private-sector development in poor countries. Oil, gas and mining companies are among those receiving support from IFC. For each project IFC mentioned, the ...