Financial Transparency Coalition

PRESS RELEASE Amid ongoing Panama Papers fallout, Commission recommends that company beneficial ownership registers be available to general public As most vocal opponent of increased transparency of trusts votes to leave EU, Commission clamps down on hidden ownership of trusts, but stops short of what’s needed BRUSSELS—Today, the European Commission took a much needed step

In April and May of 2016, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) made public the largest ever investigation into international fraud, exposing a cast of characters who use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking. The revelations dubbed the ‘Panama papers’ has brought to the fore systemic

The connection between civil and political rights and tax policy is so strong, that in a 2014 report on tax policy and human rights (“the report”), the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights in 2014 said that the link runs both ways. That is, civil and political rights bear consequences for tax

This week, European Union finance ministers agreed to establish a common EU blacklist of so-called “non-cooperative jurisdictions” – in other words, tax havens. With one tax scandal unfolding after the other, listing and sanctioning tax havens may seem like a good solution. However, as tempting as it may sound, this EU exercise is doomed to fail –