Financial Transparency Coalition

I have found a number for the amount of dirty money that is attracted into the United States on account of the secrecy facilities it provides: US$3 trillion. Yes, three trillion dollars. Which goes quite some way to explaining why the United States came top of the Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index. The number comes from a letter to Tim Geithner, US Treasury Secretary, sent by every single member of the Florida Delegation to the House of Representatives. They are whinnying about new proposed IRS regulations for the United States to be more transparent about what foreigners earn there. Currently, almost...

Well, almost. While writing Treasure Islands, a couple of friends would refer to my "book about money-laudering" and I would have to correct them, saying something along the lines of 'no, this is about something much, much bigger than money-laundering. It's about tax havens.' Anthea Lawson of Global Witness, one of the great organisations tackling the scourge of dirty money, has an excellent piece in the FT, looking at the oceans of money salted out of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya (and others). There's tons to recommend in the article - notably this ...

For some time we have been mooting the idea of creating a new organisation dedicated to assisting the governments of low-income countries through provision of expertise in tax policies and tax administration. We have provisionally given this organisation the working title of Tax Advisers Without Borders, echoing the incredible achievement of Medecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). We see this as an important component of the tax justice agenda. We think there are many recently retired tax officials and practitioners who would welcome the opportunity to use their expertise in a truly constructive way. One of our supporters, a very...

This is a moment TJN has been waiting for, for a long time. The UK launch of Nicholas Shaxson's flagship book Treasure Islands and the Men who Stole the World. Shaxson has worked closely with TJN in its writing. We are delighted that the Guardian newspaper is running a serialisation of the book, and the first piece, entitled The Truth about Tax Havens, is now live. More to come. There are some great endorsements too. The publisher, Random House, has signed deals with seven other publishers around the world so far, and more are expected. A...