Financial Transparency Coalition

My report for the TUC on corporate taxation in the UK, published today, highlights an issue not picked up by the press, but for me of some considerable significance. That is the decline of corporate reporting for activities in the UK – less than 20% of the largest companies in the UK now reporting in this way compared to 50% a decade ago. As I note in that report:

In 2000, half the sample of companies surveyed published information in their published accounts on their results arising in the UK. Usually this separate...

The report, entitled ‘Investments for Development: Derailed to Tax Havens: A report on the use of tax havens by Development Finance Institutions,’ looks at a critical area in the development activities of many European countries – the role of the Development Finance Institutions that they own in funding private sector investment in developing countries.

The Isle of Man Today web site carries the following back handed compliment today, the following being an edited (shortened) version of the story:

We have also written a story about a letter from a group who thinks the Isle of Man should ditch zero-10 company tax. The group of 12 people – including a high profile charity worker – says that we’d be better off in the long run and have a better reputation if we re-introduced company taxes. You might remember that a few weeks ago (August 10, to be precise) we ran a story...

Tax Research LLP and the Tax Justice Network have made a joint submission to the European Commission this morning on their consultation on the future of the Transparency Directive. The full submission is here. The summary says:

This submission addresses issues of opacity within the financial reporting of multinational corporations quoted on stock exchanges which we believe should be addressed by revision to the European Union’s Transparency Directive. We focus in particular on these issues: 1. The current opacity regarding ownership of such multinational corporations; 2. The opacity regarding the structure of such multinational corporations; 3. The...