Financial Transparency Coalition

Tax evasion poses an acute challenge to developing and developed countries. From 2000 to 2010, illicit financial flows deprived developing countries of US$5.86 trillion. Tax evasion is not a victimless crime – for people in the developing world, the consequences of tax evasion can be a matter of life and death. If developing countries could recover this untaxed wealth, it could mobilise enormous resources for improving their public services and their citizens’ lives.

BRUSSELS - International development agency Oxfam and the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) welcome the European Commission’s initiative to step up action against tax fraud and tax evasion, which cost billions in tax revenues in Europe but also in developing countries.

TOKYO - As the IMF and World Bank pursue implementation of tax policies in developing countries, members of Civil Society worry that these powerful institutions are putting the interests of international investors above those of the democratic governments of developing countries.

DG TAXUD, the taxation and customs department of the EU civil service, is working on a strategy on tax havens and unfair tax competition to be released in the last quarter of the year. This is an extremely welcome step, as the communication addresses several key issues. It recognises that not only double taxation but also double non-taxation is a problem when working out how to tax cross border wealth and income; proposes the introduction of automatic information exchange at EU level; and explores several concrete measures against non-cooperative tax jurisdictions and aggressive tax planning. However, in many ways...