Financial Transparency Coalition

In the process to revise Europe's 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD), European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to approve the creation of public registers of information on the real owners of companies, trusts, and other legal entities in the EU. Public registers of the beneficial owners (real owners), would help greatly in the fight against corruption, trafficking, tax evasion, and other types of illicit financial flows that are perpetrated with the help of anonymous companies with hidden ownership. However, the European Parliament's input is only one piece of the puzzle.

The European Parliament voted through a resolution calling for measures against tax evasion. The resolution was passed with an overwhelming 538 votes in favour, and only 73 against and 32 abstentions. The resolution of 19 April goes far in echoing Eurodad’s demand in calling for Automatic Information Exchange (AIE), Country-By-Country Reporting (CBCR), a mandatory Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCBT) amongst other useful suggestions.

EURODAD recently held a roundtable in the European Parliament on 21st November to launch its new report “Exposing the lost billions. How financial transparency by multinationals on a country-by-country basis can aid development." This report explains why under current accounting regulations it is so easy for multinational companies to dodge taxes and proposes full country-by-country reporting as a key solution.

BRUSSELS - Pressure has mounted on the EU to crack down on tax avoidance by multinational companies with the release of a report that reveals in detail and with examples how dodgy accounting deprives some of the world's poorest nations of billions of dollars in revenue. Multinational tax dodges are estimated to account for over half of all illicit capital flight from developing countries, thwarting poor nations' efforts to build up their own economies. Despite commitments by OECD and G20 leaders, the problem is getting worse.