Financial Transparency Coalition

LONDON—A May 2010 report from Christian Aid, Blowing the Whistle: Time’s Up for Financial Secrecy, reveals how the same tax-haven secrecy that allows football club owners to hide their business practices – and even their identities – is also facilitating massive tax dodging in developing countries.

From Christian Aid: Developing countries’ urgent need to boost their tax revenues in order to fund schools, hospitals and the fight against poverty won welcome backing today from Europe, says Christian Aid. ‘We’re delighted to see that the European Commission has really woken up to the power of tax,’ said Dr David McNair, Christian Aid’s Senior Adviser, Economic Justice. ‘It is highly significant that it has explicitly recognised poor countries’ need for higher tax revenues in order to achieve Millennium Development Goals such as halving extreme poverty and hunger and reducing child...

The European Commission issued a paper this week entitled “Tax and Development: Cooperating with Developing Countries on Promoting Good Governance in Tax Matters”. Amongst its commentary is the following:

In order to enhance transparency and facilitate access of relevant data by tax administrations in developing countries, there is an increasing interest in a country-by-country reporting (CBCR) standard for multinational corporations operating in developing countries. The Commission supports the timely conclusion of ongoing work being done by the OECD with respect to a CBCR guideline, which should then be referred in the OECD Guidelines for...