Financial Transparency Coalition

Practice Costs Spain, Developing Countries Dearly in Much-Needed Tax Revenue A recent report by the Spanish observatory on Corporate Social Responsibility, which comprises several civil society organisations, reveals that ALL companies listed in the Spanish stock exchange operate directly or indirectly through jurisdictions which are considered opaque by the Financial Secrecy Index of the Tax Justice Network. The report entitled, “Corporate Social Responsibility in the annual report of companies in the IBEX35,” highlights that more than 80% of companies that are part of the benchmark stock market index (IBEX 35) in the Spanish stock exchange (the Bolsa de...

The Tax Justice Network has long listed Israel as a tax haven - but most ignored the claim. Now the Sovereign Society is going out of its way to promote Israel as a tax haven. On this occasion we seem to be in agreement. And I don’t say that very often.

India is beginning to take the threat tax havens pose to it very seriously, partly because of the work my friends at Global Financial Integrity have done in exposing the enormous costs to India of tax haven abuse. The Hindu Business Line reports just how seriously the issue is being taken in the 2011 budget:

Transactions with entities in ‘non-cooperative’ jurisdictions that do not effectively exchange information with India may soon attract TDS (tax deduction at source) of at least 30 per cent. This is one of the several ‘anti-avoidance’ measures that the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has proposed in...

The Independent has reported testimony in a UK employment tribunal yesterday where a butler and housekeeper are claiming unfair dismissal from their jobs at an Oxfordshire estate where they thought they worked for a man named Kevin Cash. However, there’s a twist:

Yesterday, to add confusion to their grievance, an employment tribunal was told that the couple had not been employed by Mr Cash. They were actually working for a trust based in a Caribbean tax haven, and therefore had no valid claim against him, his lawyers claimed. The mysterious Mr Cash is reputed to be worth £500m, but has...