Financial Transparency Coalition

This report includes a summary of all the presentations from the 2010 Task Force annual conference and concludes with priorities for 2011.

Tax Research UK published a new report this weekend on the administration of the UK’s Register of Companies by Companies House, the agency responsible for it on behalf of the UK government’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. The report extended the review to look at the administration of corporation tax returns by H M Revenue & Customs, the UK’s tax agency. In combination these are the two main agencies with responsibility for registering and regulating companies in the UK. The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development funded the study.

The report explains illicit capital flight, how it happens, its magnitude and its consequences for development, measures taken so far and measures needed to end it. It also includes a specific chapter on capital flight from Africa and presents illustrative case studies from Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. These are written by Attiya Waris from Tax Justice Network Africa and by the Budget Working Group of Policy Forum in Tanzania.

The beginning of 2011 may yet be remembered as a new dawn of the protest and fresh interest in civic engagement worldwide. From Wisconsin to Tunisia workers and citizens have risen up against a leader, in protest of a law, or in retaliation of a loss. In Egypt in Tunisia, their voices were not only heard, but they affected regime change within weeks. In Wisconsin, two weeks of union protests have sparked a coast-to-coast debate on collective bargaining rights, the erosion of the American middle class, our national priorities, and our values as a country. The viral...