Financial Transparency Coalition

The following is for all serious offshore aficionados.  It comes form the person I think the foremost expert on the European Union Savings Tax Directive - Mark Morris, and is from his blog, with permission. What it says is at the end of the day simple, but vitally important, and that is that iof the European Union Savings Tax Directive is amended as the EU desires then Liechtenstein's secrecy is cracked open. Which is very welcome indeed. Over to Mark: "Liechtenstein is home to nearly 100,000 entities and legal arrangements which are effectively untaxed. These structure are used for succession planning, creditor protection, family support...

For years economists have talked about the “end of the euro.” These apocalyptic warnings have become only more severe in recent years and months, with the weakening of Europe’s economic and financial position and the debt crises in Portugal, Spain, Greece, and Ireland, which have triggered discussions of these countries unilaterally dropping the euro. In truth, however, economists have talked about the end of the euro since the beginning of the euro, when even after it was formally adopted as the third pillar of the European Union in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 many economists have remained...

It’s an interesting moment of flux for Task Force issues, especially if you’re sitting in London. On the one hand, you can see a key piece of UK legislation on financial integrity at serious risk; on the other hand, you can see the potential for a powerful step forward at the European level. Both are still in the balance, so if you’ve got any political pull at all – now’s the time to choose. The nature of both discussions points to a broader point, however, which is this: national- or regional-level responses to financial integrity issues will always risk a...

Last week, the European ministers made a call to establish a country-by-country reporting standard for multinational companies in the extractive sector – a much needed first step to curb tax evasion and avoidance in poor countries. This decision follows groundbreaking reports by the European Parliament to enhance global tax policies which would allow mobilising further development finance to meet internationally agreed development goals. This is a partial victory for civil society organisations in Europe who have been strongly advocating for specific policy reforms to make global tax policies work for the poor. European ministers take first steps to curb tax...