Financial Transparency Coalition

LONDON - Christian Aid today welcomed a House of Commons committee’s report on tax dodging by multinationals, which puts morality at the heart of the tax debate, and said the harm the practice causes to developing countries should be seen in the same light.

Caroline Lucas MP, leader of the UK Green Party, yesterday tabled a Bill in the House of Commons that would require country-by-country reporting by all UK companies for all their activities. Clause 3 of her Tax and Financial Transparency Bill 2011 says:

Financial transparency: companies and trusts (1)Every company, including a parent company, incorporated in or operating in the United Kingdom must publish in its annual financial statements prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 an analysis of the consolidated turnover and profit made by it in each jurisdiction in which it has a permanent establishment for taxation purposes as defined...

The government is being urged by MPs to crack down on offshore tax havens and corruption to ensure poor countries gain the maximum benefit from their own resources.