Financial Transparency Coalition

The Swiss government is about to conclude new tax deals with Germany and the UK. As was reported on the Task Force blog recently, and updated on the Tax Justice Blog, the Swiss withholding tax proposal poses a major threat to the EU's struggle for tax transparency.  In the meantime, reliable Swiss sources have revealed further details of the impending deals. 1. Germany and the UK will no longer require their citizens to declare their Swiss income. It's noteworthy that under the bilateral Swiss-EU Savings Tax Agreement, in force since 2005, Switzerland already charges a withholding tax (currently 35%)...

While over 100 million children never get the opportunity to go to school, developing countries lose more money through tax dodging than they receive in aid. Take action now to end tax haven secrecy. Join us in calling to demand tax justice at the G20 summit in France in November 2011.

I, like many in the tax justice arena, was very dubious when the OECD set up the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to undertake peer reviews of the operation of tax information exchange by participating states in the aftermath of the financial crisis and the rush to sign tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs). TIEAs are deeply flawed and the OECD designed and promoted them. The OECD was also remarkably cagey about this whole process: civil society was excluded from most involvement, far too many tax havens appeared to get positions of influence over it, the...

WASHINGTON, DC – As the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) convenes its third meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in Bermuda today, addressing deficiencies in the current OECD standard of tax information exchange is crucial, said Global Financial Integrity (GFI).