June 14th, 2011
Rumour reaches me that Jersey has failed its OECD peer review.
The
OECD says of the peer review process that:
The international fight against cross-border tax evasion has entered a new phase with the launch by countries participating in the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information of a peer review process covering a first group of 18 jurisdictions: Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Botswana, Cayman Islands, Denmark, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Jersey, Mauritius, Monaco, Norway, Panama, Qatar, San Marino, Seychelles and Trinidad & Tobago.
The reviews are a first step in a three-year process approved in February by the Global Forum in response to...
June 1st, 2011
‘Give a man a fish’, goes the old saying, ‘and he’ll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll eat forever.’
In its time, this was a progressive message, arguing for sustainable development approaches over simple aid-giving, but it now sounds rather dated. Worse than the apparent gender bias is the underlying assumption that development solutions involve ‘us’ teaching ‘them’ how to avoid being poor.
The thrust of
Christian Aid’s work on
financial integrity, and that of the Task Force and its other
members,...
May 27th, 2011
LONDON – The G8 has today announced its commitment to introduce new transparency laws that would require oil, gas and mining companies to disclose the payments they make to governments. Such measures would help eradicate the corruption that blights many mineral rich states and lift millions of people in the developing world out of poverty.
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May 27th, 2011
A couple of weeks ago I presented evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. My evidence will be published shortly. This week Dave Hartnett also gave evidence to that committee, and at least in part on the same subject: employee benefit trusts. As
Accountancy Age reports:
told the Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee: “Some of the offshore arrangements have been pretty opaque to us for some time.”
Hartnett said: “It is not always possible to use the exchange of information provisions under treaties and other things to expose those.”
The disclosure regime had...
