Financial Transparency Coalition

LONDON – Christian Aid is urging the Chancellor to consider how poor countries could be harmed by a deal allowing UK citizens with secret Swiss bank accounts to continue hiding their identities from the British taxman.

BRUSSELS - In an open letter addressed to the European Union (EU) president, the EU presidency and the European commission, 50 MEPs from 4 different political parties (S&D, Greens, Gue/Nordic Left and ALDE) call for “a moratorium on EU public financing for mining projects until adequate standards and regulations are in place.”

ISTANBUL – State Secretary Ingrid Fiskaa spoke at the Fourth UN Conference on the LDCs, identifying illicit financial flows due to trade mispricing, tax evasion, trafficking, the drugs and arms trade, and corruption as one of the structural causes of poverty as well as one of the major threats facing sustainable development, along with climate change, armed conflicts, and a lack of political and economic empowerment for women and girls.

Rarely have developing countries been more vocal and united on a question of international taxation. The vexed question of the status of the arcane-sounding “Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters” is hotting up, after rich and poor countries clashed at a United Nations meeting last month. The UN tax committee is charged with promoting international cooperation to deal with important issues such as taxing multinational companies across borders, and sharing best practice between countries. It has a specific mandate to take into account the specific needs of developing countries, which is why developing countries want to see...