Financial Transparency Coalition

John Christensen, founder of the Tax Justice Network, a Task Force member, was profiled by the Guardian on Thursday.  Bibi van der Zee writes about Christensen’s decades-long experience fighting tax evasion, talking about the impacts these illicit flows have not only on the United Kingdom, but on the developing  world as well: “ax avoidance is

Liechtenstein has just announced the latest sums it has collected under the terms of the European Savings Tax Directive. It was a measly €7.8 million. Continue Reading

In the past year, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and British Prime Minister David Cameron have been fairly vocal about Pakistan not taxing its elites, while the US and UK give aid to the country. Of course, in a fragile state like Pakistan, statements by the UK and US governments on tax are no doubt motivated by the potential for tax reform to build a strong and responsive state – which is less likely to be a security concern internationally. But Finance Minister, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, has joined the call for the rich, legislators and media ‘moguls’ to...

People only form companies for economic reasons. There really is no other reason to have one. Despite that just one in three companies in the UK pay tax. The data is based on the year to March 2010. All the details on how I got the data is in a report here. The facts are:

a)     There were about 2.6 million companies on the Register throughout most of that year.

b)     Of these about 500,000 claimed to be dormant.

c)     That leaves 2.1 million potentially taxable.

d)     But I guessed at least 180,000 of the...