Financial Transparency Coalition

KRA probes multinationals over tax evasion Business Daily Africa, June 22, 2011 ‘Only the stupid pay tax’ Sydney Morning Herald, June 22, 2011 Not all black and white Hindustan Times, June 21, 2011 Belgium lifts secrecy on foreign bank accounts The Telegraph, June 21, 2011 Italian police crack down on China money transfers AFP, June 21, 2011 China restricts popular report-a-bribe websites Associated Press, June 22, 2011

Co-Authored by Maria José Romero and Rachel Sharpe

A new report by Eurodad and Action Aid

Tax policy has been at the heart of policy advice from the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to developing countries for the last twenty years. Tax reforms became an increasingly important part of the structural adjustment programmes promoted by the World Bank and the IMF in developing countries from the late 1980’s. This paper reviews existing literature on the IFIs approach to tax policy reform during the last decade. NGO and academic research suggest that the IFIs have used technical assistance and policy advice to encourage developing...

Here’s an interesting thought experiment. What would happen if you took an organization, gave it huge resources and publicity, required no transparency, and then asked it to self-regulate? A lot of corporations and governments would like to argue you’d get efficiency. As it would turn out… you’d get FIFA. In May of this year, the International Federation of Association Football (In French: Fédération Internationale de Football Association or FIFA), suspended two of its officials: Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar and Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago. These men were accused of attempting to bribe the 25 heads of the Caribbean...

Global Financial Integrity’s Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs Heather Lowe has written a guest blog on FCPA Professor in response to criticisms of GFI’s press release about the Chamber of Commerce’s proposed changes to the FCPA. Ms. Lowe examined the FCPA in relation to the new UK Bribery Act, noting that unlike the FCPA, “The UK Bribery Act criminalizes ALL forms of commercial bribery”. As a result, a compliance defense under the UK Bribery Act has different ramifications than under the less encompassing FCPA. She further notes that “Compliance in the UK is not...