Financial Transparency Coalition

The CBS television news magazine, 60 Minutes, is going to run a segment on the issue of tax havens and transfer pricing.  CBS describes the segment as:

"60 Minutes," Sunday at 7 P.M. ET/PT (CBS)  SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2011 The New Tax Havens - American companies are finding new overseas tax havens to legally protect some of their profits from the U.S. tax rate of 35 percent, among the highest in the world. Lesley Stahl reports. Shachar Bar-On is the producer.

Indeed, our good friend, Marty Sullivan from Tax Analysts, is slated to be on the program.  Visit the...

I have found a number for the amount of dirty money that is attracted into the United States on account of the secrecy facilities it provides: US$3 trillion. Yes, three trillion dollars. Which goes quite some way to explaining why the United States came top of the Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index. The number comes from a letter to Tim Geithner, US Treasury Secretary, sent by every single member of the Florida Delegation to the House of Representatives. They are whinnying about new proposed IRS regulations for the United States to be more transparent about what foreigners earn there. Currently, almost...

Back in 2009, when Task Force members began lobbying the UK government on what the G20’s crackdown on tax havens might look like, the response was that automatic exchange of information was cumbersome, difficult, that there was far too much information to be useful – and, to paraphrase, that it would end up being shipped around the world in boxes which would cause a fire hazard. But last week the UK parliament accepted the Draft Penalties, Offshore Income etc. (Designation of territories) Order 2011. This measure, designed to crack down on UK taxpayers holding assets offshore,...

Practice Costs Spain, Developing Countries Dearly in Much-Needed Tax Revenue A recent report by the Spanish observatory on Corporate Social Responsibility, which comprises several civil society organisations, reveals that ALL companies listed in the Spanish stock exchange operate directly or indirectly through jurisdictions which are considered opaque by the Financial Secrecy Index of the Tax Justice Network. The report entitled, “Corporate Social Responsibility in the annual report of companies in the IBEX35,” highlights that more than 80% of companies that are part of the benchmark stock market index (IBEX 35) in the Spanish stock exchange (the Bolsa de...