Financial Transparency Coalition

John Christensen, founder of the Tax Justice Network, a Task Force member, was profiled by the Guardian on Thursday.  Bibi van der Zee writes about Christensen’s decades-long experience fighting tax evasion, talking about the impacts these illicit flows have not only on the United Kingdom, but on the developing  world as well: “ax avoidance is

Rumour reaches me that Jersey has failed its OECD peer review. The OECD says of the peer review process that:

The international fight against cross-border tax evasion has entered a new phase with the launch by countries participating in the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information of a peer review process covering a first group of 18 jurisdictions: Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Botswana, Cayman Islands, Denmark, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Jersey, Mauritius, Monaco, Norway, Panama, Qatar, San Marino, Seychelles and Trinidad & Tobago. The reviews are a first step in a three-year process approved in February by the Global Forum in response to...

H M Revenue & Customs has, as many will be aware, announced a new penalty regime for offshore disclosures. As they say:

These new penalties come into force from 6 April 2011 and apply to Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax. The legislation can be found in Schedule 10 of Finance Act 2010. The new penalty is an enhancement of the penalties for

I have often argued that tax havens / secrecy jurisdictions have been subject to regulatory capture. Wikipedia defines this as:

regulatory capture occurs when a state regulatory agency created to act in the public interest instead advances the commercial or special interests that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as an encouragement for large firms to produce negative externalities. The agencies are called Captured Agencies.

The evidence became very clear ina  presentation given last Friday by Jersey Finance to the members...