Financial Transparency Coalition

Tax Research LLP and the Tax Justice Network have made a joint submission to the European Commission this morning on their consultation on the future of the Transparency Directive. The full submission is here. The summary says:

This submission addresses issues of opacity within the financial reporting of multinational corporations quoted on stock exchanges which we believe should be addressed by revision to the European Union’s Transparency Directive. We focus in particular on these issues: 1. The current opacity regarding ownership of such multinational corporations; 2. The opacity regarding the structure of such multinational corporations; 3. The...

The European Commission has recently opened a consultation process until 23 August 2010 calling for views to modify a regulation that sets out minimum transparency requirements for listed companies. The Transparency Directive was adopted in 2004 with the aim of improving the information available to investors on companies’ performances to help them make investment decisions. Now, the so-called TOD Directive is under revision. Where the directive currently falls down As it currently stands, while the Directive covers a large range of firms, namely, those whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market, it only offers EU Member States the possibility...

From Christian Aid: Developing countries’ urgent need to boost their tax revenues in order to fund schools, hospitals and the fight against poverty won welcome backing today from Europe, says Christian Aid. ‘We’re delighted to see that the European Commission has really woken up to the power of tax,’ said Dr David McNair, Christian Aid’s Senior Adviser, Economic Justice. ‘It is highly significant that it has explicitly recognised poor countries’ need for higher tax revenues in order to achieve Millennium Development Goals such as halving extreme poverty and hunger and reducing child...

The European Commission issued a paper this week entitled “Tax and Development: Cooperating with Developing Countries on Promoting Good Governance in Tax Matters”. Amongst its commentary is the following:

In order to enhance transparency and facilitate access of relevant data by tax administrations in developing countries, there is an increasing interest in a country-by-country reporting (CBCR) standard for multinational corporations operating in developing countries. The Commission supports the timely conclusion of ongoing work being done by the OECD with respect to a CBCR guideline, which should then be referred in the OECD Guidelines for...