Financial Transparency Coalition

By TJN staff and Mark Herkenrath, Alliance Sud We already blogged about the signing yesterday of the Swiss-German tax deal, and TJN's opposition to it. This blog goes into a little more detail than before, and outlines some of the salient points of the deal. This is something that matters a great deal - because several other countries are believed to be considering doing something similar. Which, in TJN's view, would be a grave mistake. (Our last blog also highlights the strange, even fishy-looking timing of this...

The Swiss government is about to conclude new tax deals with Germany and the UK. As was reported on the Task Force blog recently, and updated on the Tax Justice Blog, the Swiss withholding tax proposal poses a major threat to the EU's struggle for tax transparency.  In the meantime, reliable Swiss sources have revealed further details of the impending deals. 1. Germany and the UK will no longer require their citizens to declare their Swiss income. It's noteworthy that under the bilateral Swiss-EU Savings Tax Agreement, in force since 2005, Switzerland already charges a withholding tax (currently 35%)...

While over 100 million children never get the opportunity to go to school, developing countries lose more money through tax dodging than they receive in aid. Take action now to end tax haven secrecy. Join us in calling to demand tax justice at the G20 summit in France in November 2011.

We are delighted to see this from Brazil's respected Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos (INESC,) which has launched a Brazilian (Portuguese-language) campaign, as part of our global End Tax Haven Secrecy (ETHS) initiative. The new site, Fim aos Paraísos Fiscais, is supported by a wide range of organisations and the launch got good media coverage in Brazil. Take a look at these reports, for example: