Financial Transparency Coalition

Like lava lamps, parachute pants, and Twitter, it has become a fad to rave about fetching back illicit funds stashed abroad. Of course, like any first-rate fad, there was a trendsetting pair, which in this case was the U.S. and Swiss bank UBS. The pair linked up earlier this year when the IRS caught wind that Swiss bankers were traveling to the U.S., offering Americans access to superior wealth management, sound investment opportunities, the added perk of easy tax evasion. And the U.S. has been on the chase ever since. In recent months,...

United Press International published a great piece today from their Asia bureau about India's struggle with black money. From the article:

Taking advantage of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s sanction threats against tax havens, the Indian government is taking a hard look at the country’s plethora of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements. But laying a hand on the enormous amount of the country’s illegal or black money stashed abroad may be easier said than done.

The topic of illicit financial flows out of India has become a big issue in recent years, but...

Kolkata, India — Taking advantage of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s sanction threats against tax havens, the Indian government is taking a hard look at the country’s plethora of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements. But laying a hand on the enormous amount of the country’s illegal or black money stashed abroad may be easier said than done.

A week after the new government took oath, a senior official of a large Wall Street bank, which survived the meltdown, made a call to a few bankers in India. She had a specific question: were local markets expecting money to flow back from Swiss banks and tax havens? It could well have been an academic question by a treasury economist preparing an internal note. Indeed, bringing back money parked by rich Indians in secret offshore bank accounts was a promise in the BJP manifesto that few voters chose to buy. The issue, arcane to many, was supposed to...