Financial Transparency Coalition

Christian Aid welcomes Ed Miliband’s determination to tackle the tax havens which are harming UK public finances but it urges him to go further, because financial secrecy is a curse for poor countries too. ‘It’s great that Mr Miliband has recognised that tax haven secrecy is damaging people in the UK, by providing a cover for people and companies to hide their wealth and avoid paying the taxes that are so urgently needed,’ said Dr David McNair, Christian Aid’s Principal Adviser on Economic Justice.

According to an upcoming report that estimates the magnitude of illicit money leaving developing countries, the Philippines lost US$142 billion between 2000 and 2009. The amount of illicit money that left the economy puts the Philippines in the top 15 countries in outflows during the period. The report, titled Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries Over the Decade ending 2009, will be published by Washington, DC-based research group Global Financial Integrity on December 15.

Half of the world's trade passes through tax havens. Right now, they are hiding billions of dollars on behalf of criminals, dictators, wealthy individuals, and corporations. Watch this video, then find out what tax havens are, why they're so damaging and what we can do about it.

LONDON - The issue of tax collection is rising fast up the political and social agenda, as countries across the world make deep cuts in public spending and increase taxes in ways that hurt the poor and the middle classes the most. This new research demonstrates how important it is to tackle tax evasion and the tax havens that help wealthy individuals and organisations escape from contributing to the services that directly benefit them - from the health and education systems that support their workforces, to the roads that ship their goods to markets, to the courts of law that...