Financial Transparency Coalition

The final two months of 2014 saw a surge of positive news for civil society whose collaborative and consolidated efforts over recent years to push for greater corporate transparency measures are now seeing the light. Civil society has called for greater light to be shed on the real living people who ultimately own or control companies – the beneficial owners. Current levels of secrecy mean that global detection rates for illicit funds by law enforcement are as low as 1 percent for criminal proceeds.

Nicholas Shaxon, author of Treasure Islands and a contributor to the Task Force blog, wrote a fantastic expose of US GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney's offshore finances in Vanity Fair.

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) today joined several other civil society organizations encouraging U.S. Senators to support the offshore tax evasion amendment (S.A. 1818) to the highway reauthorization bill. The amendment, sponsored by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), is expected to come up for a vote this evening.

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service is giving more time to Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Aegon NV (AGN) and other banks based outside of the U.S. to implement a controversial tax reporting rule.