Financial Transparency Coalition

India is beginning to take the threat tax havens pose to it very seriously, partly because of the work my friends at Global Financial Integrity have done in exposing the enormous costs to India of tax haven abuse. The Hindu Business Line reports just how seriously the issue is being taken in the 2011 budget:

Transactions with entities in ‘non-cooperative’ jurisdictions that do not effectively exchange information with India may soon attract TDS (tax deduction at source) of at least 30 per cent. This is one of the several ‘anti-avoidance’ measures that the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has proposed in...

The Independent has reported testimony in a UK employment tribunal yesterday where a butler and housekeeper are claiming unfair dismissal from their jobs at an Oxfordshire estate where they thought they worked for a man named Kevin Cash. However, there’s a twist:

Yesterday, to add confusion to their grievance, an employment tribunal was told that the couple had not been employed by Mr Cash. They were actually working for a trust based in a Caribbean tax haven, and therefore had no valid claim against him, his lawyers claimed. The mysterious Mr Cash is reputed to be worth £500m, but has...

The European presidency has just issued a note advocating a push to increase financial transparency in Europe through its Savings Tax Directive. As they say:

"The Presidency attaches crucial importance to gear up bilateral talks in order to reach political agreement upon the adoption of the Savings Tax Directive in the very near future."

Unsurprisingly, there are some rather large flies in this ointment. Austria and Luxembourg have long been holdouts on the European Savings Tax Directive, working hard behind...

On February 4, 2011, The House of Literature in Oslo welcomed the British author and journalist Nicholas Shaxson for the launch of his new book ‘Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World’. PWYP-Norway talked with Shaxson before the launch and following debate, to hear more about how tax havens function, and why this is an important issue.