Financial Transparency Coalition

This report "A confused economy", highlights the distortions between the real economy and the indicators that guide the G20 and the International Financial Institutions. Investments, trade, savings, production- the report shows how the use of offshore financial centres makes any measurement of these indicators impossible. At the heart of this economic lie, the report points to the important role of multinationals and banks- the top users of tax havens.

A recent report from ActionAid made headlines when it accused SABMiller, the world’s second largest beer company, of avoiding millions of pounds worth of tax in India and the African countries in which it operates. ActionAid argues that through financial transactions with subsidiaries located in tax havens, SABMiller shifts its profits largely via royalty and management fees to firms in developed countries with lower tax rates. As a result, lower local profits mean less taxable income, and that denies governments the revenue needed to build key infrastructures such as schools, roads, and ports. On the other hand, Zahid...

The first paper in Christian Aid’s tax briefing paper series, Accounting for Change, “Shifting Sands: Tax Transparency and Multinational Companies” charts the progress of the campaign for country by country reporting over the past two years, outlines the rationale for such a standard within the development finance debate, presents a private sector perspective (based on Christian Aid’s dialogue with companies and FTSE100 survey), and answers some of the counter arguments.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—Christian Aid Scotland and the Church of Scotland today launch a joint report to raise awareness of the billions lost to developing countries from tax evasion and avoidance and to call on the International Accounting Standards Board to introduce an international country-by-country reporting standard. Such a standard would oblige multinational corporations to report on their profits and other financial details in each of the countries or jurisdictions in which they operate. The launch of Paying our dues: how tax dodging punishes the poor (PDF, 5mb),...