Financial Transparency Coalition

Yesterday, Monique Perry Danziger, Communications Director at Global Financial Integrity, had an op-ed featured in The Hill. Writing on the first anniversary of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, she covers both the importance of the SEC producing guidelines for the country-by-country reporting elements of the legislation (Section 1504), and the need to expand financial transparency through approval of the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. Section 1504 of the Act requires oil, gas, and mineral producers who report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to disclose any payments made to foreign governments in the process of developing and extracting materials. Section 1504, or the Cardin-Lugar amendment as it is known, promotes much-needed transparency in the extractive industries sector. It represents the first time a country-by-country reporting policy has been introduced into US law, albeit on a limited scale. The cost of corruption in the extractive...

The U.S. Federal government is in some dark times. Unable to find a political compromise to raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. faces a potential economic catastrophe. Negotiations are stalling. Tempers are flaring on both sides of the aisle. The key point of contention? Tax increases. President Obama has reportedly endorsed reducing the debt by $2 trillion with 83% of the reduction coming from spending cuts and 17% coming from new revenues. Those proposed new revenues (or “tax increases” as some have called them) would have come from closing tax loopholes for things like corporate jet ownership. But House...

First Full Country-By-Country Reporting Standard Proposed in U.S.

This morning, U.S. Senator Carl Levin introduced the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (STHAA).  The bill proposes solutions to loopholes and vulnerabilities in American policy that allow corporations to escape taxes.  Tax evasion currently costs American taxpayers over $100 billion each year. Introducing the bill, Senator Levin said:

The bottom line is that each of us has a legal and civil obligation to pay taxes, and most Americans fulfill that obligation.  It is time to force the tax scofflaws, the tax dodgers, and the tax cheats to do the...