Financial Transparency Coalition

The leaders of the world’s eight wealthiest economies have finished their meetings, headed home, and issued a final communiqué for the G8 summit in Lough Erne. And though emerging economies are not represented at the meetings, there are plenty of reasons they should deeply care about what was said. In general, the G8 communiqué goes a long way to calling out important tax issues, but in particular understands the importance of tax in the context of mobilizing domestic resources, curtailing illicit financial flows, and promoting development. And while the G8 did not go as far as they should have...

Two great editorials today. The first, from the New York Times, responds to last week's Senate hearing over Apple's tax abuses by calling for country-by-country reporting, a Coalition policy goal, and ending corporate tax deferral in the United States. This is great news, and will hopefully help persuade U.S. policy measures to address the worst problems in their corporate tax code. The second, from the Financial Times, also calls for country-by-country reporting at the EU level. Furthermore, it calls for another Coalition policy goal, automatic exchange of tax information.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) secured a big step towards the financial transparency needed to combat tax dodging last week when they made EU Finance Ministers agree on country-by-country reporting for EU banks from 2014. This represents a major victory after years of campaigning by Eurodad members and allies. The deal under the EU’s Capital Requirement Directive is timely and it can – and should – influence the final agreement on the Accounting Directive, where country-by-country reporting is still on the table.

It’s your bank. You see it. Walk by it. Use the cash machine. Get a loan. But is your bank paying taxes to your government, just as you do? Does your bank report on its profits or on how many staff it employs? In short, is your bank contributing to your community and your economy?