Financial Transparency Coalition

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—Christian Aid Scotland and the Church of Scotland today launch a joint report to raise awareness of the billions lost to developing countries from tax evasion and avoidance and to call on the International Accounting Standards Board to introduce an international country-by-country reporting standard. Such a standard would oblige multinational corporations to report on their profits and other financial details in each of the countries or jurisdictions in which they operate. The launch of Paying our dues: how tax dodging punishes the poor (PDF, 5mb),...

Germany and Switzerland on Saturday rejected a report they had agreed to a landmark tax deal that would reap 30 billion euros (26.2 billion pounds) from tax evaders but said they still aimed for a deal this month.

My report for the TUC on corporate taxation in the UK, published today, highlights an issue not picked up by the press, but for me of some considerable significance. That is the decline of corporate reporting for activities in the UK – less than 20% of the largest companies in the UK now reporting in this way compared to 50% a decade ago. As I note in that report:

In 2000, half the sample of companies surveyed published information in their published accounts on their results arising in the UK. Usually this separate...

In the financial earthquake that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, bankers were gripped by one question: who would be the next to go?