Financial Transparency Coalition

Last month the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris removed the last holdouts Andorra, Lichtenstein and Monaco from its blacklist of "uncooperative" tax havens. With every OECD-targeted tax haven across the globe now committed to tax "transparency and exchange of information," according to the organization's Committee on Fiscal Affairs, the world seems to have entered a new era.

Country-by-Country Reporting Noticeably Absent; Disclosure of Beneficial Ownership Endorsed

The finance ministers from 19 OECD nations released a "Summary of Conclusions" as the result of their meeting in Berlin today. While afirming previous committments - encouraging the use of "defensive measures" to be used against Tax havens, and calling for the disclosure of beneficial ownership of all companies, foundations, and trusts - the statement stops far short of calling for country-by-country reporting of profits by multinational corporations. Additionally, the countries remain committed to the OECD standard on information exchange - a standard which we...

At the 23 June meeting in Berlin, ministers of 19 countries reviewed the progress that has been made with respect to the implementation of the OECD standard on transparency and exchange of information in tax matters since their last meeting held on 21 October 2008 in Paris.

At a meeting in Berlin on Tuesday, the OECD finance ministers agreed to step up the fight against tax evasion, focusing on countries such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.