Financial Transparency Coalition

PARIS (OECD) – Due to the recent financial and economic crisis, global corporate losses have increased significantly. Numbers at stake are vast, with loss carry-forwards as high as 25% of GDP in some countries. Though most of these claims are justified, some corporations find loop-holes and use ‘aggressive tax planning’ to avoid taxes in ways that are not within the spirit of the law.

"Real patriots pay their fair share of taxes. They don’t run out on the bill," write Scott Klinger and Holly Sklar. Some of our nation’s biggest corporations are planning a tax holiday and they want you to pick up the tab. Actually, you already pay for their routine tax avoidance through the use of tax havens in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and elsewhere. These accounting acrobatics cost the U.S. Treasury $100 billion a year. Now they want Congress to pass a special tax holiday for money they “repatriate” back to the United States. There’s nothing patriotic about this repatriation being pushed by...

Developing countries should have a voice in the discussion on international taxation, writes David McNair of Christian Aid Sitting in New York's Harvard Club surrounded by tax lawyers is not one of the places you expect to find yourself when you sign up to work for an NGO. But there we were, surrounded by taxidermy, listening to a live pianist and discussing the ins and outs of negotiating tax treaties. The world of international taxation, despite affecting millions, is controlled by a small community of people. I have yet to meet a member of this group that is anything but decent,...

The Monetary Affairs Committee of the EU Parliament has sent the following letter to the European Commission:

Mr Michel Barnier Commissioner for Internal Market and Services European Commission Rue de la Loi 200 B-1049 Brussels 25 May 2011 Country by Country Reporting Dear Commissioner Barnier We wanted to thank you for taking the time to meet with some of us last week in Strasbourg and for your continued positive engagement on country-by-country reporting and your public commitment to come forward with legislative proposals later this year . Before those proposals are published, we would like to reiterate a few key points from our meeting which we hope...