November 4th, 2015
In Citizens for Tax Justice’s latest report, Offshore Shell Games, the organization looks at how multinational corporations can avoid paying substantial amounts of taxes through the use of offshore tax havens. Large companies gain the advantage over small businesses and individuals by using accounting tricks to create the illusion that a substantial amount of their
Continue Reading
September 14th, 2015
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unveiled new guidance to federal prosecutors about bringing criminal cases against individuals in instances of corporate wrongdoing. The memo states that if a corporation wishes to resolve its own criminal charges and receive any credit for cooperation, it must provide the DOJ with all relevant facts relating
Continue Reading
January 26th, 2015
If people stash their wealth or earn income overseas, that is fine with us — just as long as their tax authorities get the information they need to tax that wealth or income according to the law, and as long as money laundering and financial crimes can be effectively tracked, and so on. Where there are cross-border barriers to the instruments of democratic societies, then there is an offshore problem.
The only credible way to provide the necessary information is through so-called automatic information exchange (AIE), where governments make sure the necessary information is available across borders, as a matter of routine.
For years we at the Tax Justice...
Continue Reading
November 15th, 2011
LONDON - Global Witness applauds Representatives Maloney (D-NY), Frank (D-MA) and Lynch (D-MA) for introducing legislation that would tackle corporate secrecy. If passed into law, the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (H.R. 3416), a companion bill to the Senate’s bipartisan S. 1483, would require companies to disclose their ultimate owners when the company is set up. This would make it much harder for corrupt politicians, tax dodgers, drug traffickers, terrorists and other criminals to form and hide behind anonymous U.S. shell companies.
Continue Reading