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Sen. Levin Calls For Tax Haven Sanctions In Run-up To G-20

September 16, 2009

By Richard Murphy

Richard Murphy is a founder of the Tax Justice Network and director of Tax Research LLP. An expert on tax policy, he writes a daily blog which provides regular news on his activities and opinions at www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/

Sen. Levin Calls For Tax Haven Sanctions In Run-up To G-20.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan wants the U.S. to propose stiff sanctions at this month’s G-20 economic summit for banks and countries that harbor the assets of tax evaders.

In a Tuesday letter to President Obama, Levin said the U.S. should seek Group of 20 approval of sanctions for tax havens, including prohibiting G-20 banks from doing business with financial institutions that are found to be impeding tax enforcement.

“If … a tax haven bank refused, for example, to cooperate with requests about U.S. clients using the bank to hide assets and evade tax obligations, the United States could prohibit U.S. financial institutions from doing business with that bank, until it provided the requested information,” Levin wrote.

Absolutely right.

Carl Levin is speaking at the Task Force conference tonight.

Disclaimer: Unless specifically stated to be the views of the Task Force, the opinions expressed on this blog are solely the opinions of the individual blogger and are not necessarily those of the Task Force on Financial Integrity & Economic Development.

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