Financial Transparency Coalition

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.

In a judgment having far reaching consequence, a three judges bench of the Supreme Court of India, in the case of Vodafone International Holdings BV v. Union of India, has set aside the Mumbai High Court judgment, which had required Vodafone to pay capital gains tax worth US$2.5 billion to the Government of India for a transaction that had seen the company acquire 67 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar (a mobile phone operator in India) in 2007. Vodafone, the second largest telecom operator in India, had challenged the tax bill over its US$11.5 billion deal to buy Hutchison...

Yesterday ActionAid released a new report, detailing how tax changes being brought forward in the Budget could result in tax losses of £4 billion a year for poor countries and £1 billion for the UK. These changes will make it much easier for multinational companies to use tax havens to dodge their bills, particularly in the developing world.

Last night, the University of Edinburgh Students Union became the first union in the UK to ban all SABMiller beers, including Grolsch and Peroni, from union outlets.