Financial Transparency Coalition

First Full Country-By-Country Reporting Standard Proposed in U.S.

This morning, U.S. Senator Carl Levin introduced the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (STHAA).  The bill proposes solutions to loopholes and vulnerabilities in American policy that allow corporations to escape taxes.  Tax evasion currently costs American taxpayers over $100 billion each year. Introducing the bill, Senator Levin said:

The bottom line is that each of us has a legal and civil obligation to pay taxes, and most Americans fulfill that obligation.  It is time to force the tax scofflaws, the tax dodgers, and the tax cheats to do the...

When I first looked at the subsidy the UK gave to the Isle of Man through its VAT sharing agreement I came to the conclusion that the sum involved exceeded £200 million a year. In 2009 the UK government removed £140 million of that subsidy a year. Yesterday they announced intention to increase the withdrawal if subsidy to a total of £215 million a year – very close to the sum I first calculated.

I, like many in the tax justice arena, was very dubious when the OECD set up the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to undertake peer reviews of the operation of tax information exchange by participating states in the aftermath of the financial crisis and the rush to sign tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs). TIEAs are deeply flawed and the OECD designed and promoted them. The OECD was also remarkably cagey about this whole process: civil society was excluded from most involvement, far too many tax havens appeared to get positions of influence over it, the...

The Tax Justice Network has now collected a significant number of documents together in its "Offshore History" page. The latest addition is a history of the emergence of the Cayman Islands as a tax haven / secrecy jurisdiction, which is here. The full Offshore History page currently reads as below. Comments and suggestions for additional material would be gratefully received. Offshore History: Articles and online documents Dec 2010 - Tax Analysts 40th anniversary commemorative book, where 50 tax folk are invited to answer the question: What is one of the most significant changes to tax administration, practice, or...