Financial Transparency Coalition

It was good to be challenged about why we need much greater financial transparency to help developing countries by the IMF during an extended meeting with them on Friday. The team from the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development was able to address these issues, and clearly make the case. A number of explanations were offered. First, greater transparency in developing countries will be of benefit in those places. Without data markets cannot operate effectively. If you do not know with whom you are dealing; if you do not know how...

High Court gives green light for offshore tax clawback - Times Online . This is an important case for HM Revenue & Customs to win. The core of the argument was that 2008 legislation that allowed the Revenue to backdate claims against an abusive form of offshore trust were illegal as an infringement of the human right to enjoy property. The claimant took advantage of a scheme designed and marketed by Montpelier Tax Consultants (Isle of Man). The judge was told that he settled a trust in the Isle of Man, the “Robert Huitson Family Settlement”. The 2008 legislation means that...

The OECD is to set up a ‘task force’ to implement a coherent approach to tax and development issues, engaging developing countries and other key stakeholders including NGOs and business. Membership is apparently to be of between 15 and 20 people. The task force will convene in the next six weeks as an informal group representative of all stakeholders to develop clear and effective mechanisms for implementation and to avoid duplication. The informal task force will begin by mapping out existing international efforts relating to tax and development.

I was speaking to a wise friend and fellow accountant this morning. We were discussing a number of accounting standards issues, as is our regular habit. He offered what I thought was a very good description of country-by-country reporting – of which he is a fan. He called it ‘the plimsoll line of accounting’. The plimsoll line is described on Wikipedia as:

The International Load Line or Plimsoll Line (waterline), positioned amidships, indicates the legal limit to which a ship may be loaded for specific water types and temperatures.

It seems like a simple thing, and...