Financial Transparency Coalition

Last week, while showcasing draft EU laws on tax transparency, commissioner Algirdas Semeta told media in Brussels he is building "the most comprehensive information exchange system in the world." He added: "The EU system will become even broader than the US system." It is an astonishing claim. The wide-reaching impact of the new US regime - the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which came into force on 1 January - has been demonstrated by a storm of angry reactions in worldwide financial centres. Some of Semeta's proposals, notably his amendments to the EU Savings Tax Directive (EUSTD), do broaden the...

After a year of negotiations with Member States and the European Commission, and strong involvement by Eurodad and our partners, the European Parliament this week voted in favour of new accounting rules for extractive and logging sectors. The Accounting Directive will require companies in these two sectors to disclose their payments to governments in every country where they operate.

WASHINGTON DC - The release of massive amounts of new information about hidden off-shore wealth by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), confirms beyond reasonable doubt that the world’s financial system legitimises industrial-scale tax avoidance, aids criminals and drug cartels and facilitates corruption up to the highest levels of our society.

Since the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy, the OECD, and European leaders of the G8 have all committed to tackling tax havens, with a mixed record of successful reform. However, leading up to this week's meeting of the G8, David Cameron is calling for the organization's leaders to commit to addressing the global shadow financial system that has allowed illicit financial flows to stream into tax havens.