Financial Transparency Coalition

Last week, Credit Suisse, a staple of the Swiss banking industry, pleaded guilty to conspiring to help US citizens "hide their wealth" for decades, in order to avoid taxes. The debate that has emerged in the wake of US Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement seems to focus on whether or not the fine—roughly US$2.6 billion—is fair. Is it high enough? It might not be much more than a couple of month’s earnings for this major bank. In the wake of the guilty plea, does this settlement prove the suspicion of many that...

There is an old proverb that goes something like this: “one finger cannot lift a pebble.” And while reducing cross-border tax evasion is not like lifting pebble—it’s more like hauling a boulder—it is true that it cannot be achieved unilaterally. No single country can stop, stem, or slow offshore tax evasion by its own citizens without the help of at least one other nation. This is true by definition. Historically much of the bilateral cooperation on tax evasion has been less than amicable. That is changing. Increasingly, we are seeing that the cooperation in matters of tax between nations—particularly wealthy...

It was a busy Tuesday night for the tax justice campaign team. Many of us here at ActionAid were hearing from the fantastic campaigners that we had speaking at our event (more on that later). And a few more were glued to the Finance Bill debate in Parliament.