Financial Transparency Coalition

On 9 December 2010, the European Parliament’s Committee on Development will vote on the Draft Report on Tax and Development led by Member of the European Parliament Eva Joly. The report aims to present the European Parliament’s views on the initiatives set forth by the European Commission in the Communication on Cooperation with Developing Countries on Promoting Good Governance in Tax Matters. This report is good news for civil society organisations such as Eurodad that are advocating to effectively clamp down on tax havens and stop more than USD 600 billion of tax-related illicit flows bleeding the...

According to this article, Luxembourgian Finance Minister Luc Frieden has indicated to the European Union's Council of Finance Ministers (EcoFin) that the Grand Duchy is no longer opposed to automatic information exchange through the EU's savings tax directive (STD). If this is the case, we have cause for celebration, though we still don't know whether Austria will also fall into line and cooperate. The EU's STD is currently under review. The review process is considering broadening the directive's scope to include a wider range of incomes (it currently...

BRUSSELS—A debate was held on transparency and extractive industries in Africa at the European Parliament on 15 September 2010, organised by CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies and its partner organisation SECAM, the pan-African bishops’ conference. The debate highlighted how “the lack of transparency is killing the African people,” as stated by Bishop Louis Portella-Mbuyu of Congo-Brazzaville, who for years has fearlessly challenged his government and transnational extractive companies. EU legislation could contribute to recuperating the huge amount of uncollected tax revenue, far surpassing development aid. The European Commission recently reviewed its EU transparency regulation setting up transparency...

As far as international tax cooperation goes, the OECD is the organization that holds the cards. Or at least it does when it comes to the standards by which countries exchange information for tax purposes. According to OECD guidelines, countries which have negotiated bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) exchange of information for tax purposes on request when it is "foreseeably relevant." The OECD also maintains a gray list of so-called “tax havens;” jurisdictions with a lack of transparency that have signed fewer than twelve TIEAs. The jurisdictions which reach that threshold are removed from...