Financial Transparency Coalition

Today’s international tax rules, which were drawn up nearly a century ago, have not kept pace with the massive changes in the world economy.

LONDON - The OECD’s Global Forum peer review, the main mechanism for assessing the effectiveness of Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs), is seriously flawed and therefore contributes to failure in reducing rampant tax evasion. The findings of a new Tax Justice Network report published today run directly counter to claims made by the OECD that its TIEAs represent the new international standard on tax transparency.

On p28 of the UK edition of Treasure Islands, I write: Almost no official estimates of the damage exist. The Brussels-based non-governmental organisation Eurodad has a book called Global Development Finance: Illicit flows Report 2009 which seeks to lay out, over a hundred pages, every comprehensive official estimate of global illicit international financial flows. Every page is blank. It’s a gimmick, but an important and telling gimmick. (Take a look at the picture: if you’re interested, the book’s cover looks like this). Now, for something I wrote yesterday on the TJN blog:

Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK, a coordinating committee member of the Task Force, has released a new report on tax haven abuse on behalf of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), War on Want, and the Tax Justice Network. The report examines the effects of tax havens on tax collection, financial stability, corruption and poverty. In addition, it looks at the consequences of secrecy laws in tax havens on the international financial system. The report expresses concern over the direction tax law is moving in, stating: PCS wishes to draw attention to the massively worrying...