This October 2010 report from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) highlights how UK banks will avoid paying £19 billion of tax on future profits by offsetting their losses during the financial crisis against their tax bills, and it advocates for an international country-by-country reporting standard for multinational corporations.
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—Christian Aid Scotland and the Church of Scotland today launch a joint report to raise awareness of the billions lost to developing countries from tax evasion and avoidance and to call on the International Accounting Standards Board to introduce an international country-by-country reporting standard.
This research briefing on secrecy jurisdictions from Tax Research UK–endorsed by the Tax Justice Network and the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development–is designed to briefly provide a clear insight into what secrecy jurisdictions are and what problems they cause.
Tax Research UK has published a new briefing on secrecy jurisdictions today. This has also been endorsed by the Tax Justice Network and the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development. It is available in PDF format on the left.
The briefing, the first in a new format, is designed to provide a clear insight into what we think secrecy jurisdictions are, and what problems they cause, all in a somewhat limited length.
At the core of the paper are these arguments:
LONDON—British high street banks have accepted millions of pounds in deposits from corrupt Nigerian politicians, raising serious questions about their commitment to tackling financial crime, warned Global Witness in a report published today. By taking money from corrupt Nigerian governors between 1999 and 2005, Barclays, NatWest, RBS, HSBC and UBS helped to fuel corruption and entrench poverty in Nigeria.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—A pioneering new measurement of government public disclosure in managing oil, gas and minerals ranks Brazil and Norway highest among 41 countries for making public detailed information about these key resources, the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) and Transparency International (TI) announced today.
The report, entitled ‘Investments for Development: Derailed to Tax Havens: A report on the use of tax havens by Development Finance Institutions,’ looks at a critical area in the development activities of many European countries – the role of the Development Finance Institutions that they own in funding private sector investment in developing countries.
The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the attached outcome document for the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit by consensus on September 22, 2010. The document puts forth an action agenda for achieving the MDGs by 2015; the agenda includes tackling the issue of illicit financial flows as one of the action items.
Transparency has been at the forefront of public debate since the beginning of the global crisis in October 2008. One of the indirect outcomes of the crisis has probably been the rise of the G20 as the forum where global governance was discussed, with a strong stance towards transparency in the first summits that dealt with the crisis.
General assessment of G20 performance in transparency-related matters is probably mixed. Whereas strong language is extremely welcome against corruption, enhanced regulation and increased disclosure lag behind with respect to financial markets or disbursement of public funds, not to mention domestic implementation in each of the 19 G20 countries, which is extremely uneven and difficult to monitor by civil society. The attached letter takes stock of progress made but still urges the G20 to take swift and comprehensive action in order to avoid repetition of crises and bring about a more transparent global economy.
A report prepared by the staff the of the Joint Committee on Taxation for a public hearing held on 22 July 2010 before the House Committee on Ways and Means includes six case studies of companies that reported effective tax rates at least 10 percentage points lower than the U.S. statutory rate for a period of years, along with large gaps between the countries in which they reported sales and the countries in which they reported earnings.
A new Business Against Tax Havens report, ‘Unfair Advantage: The Business Case Against Overseas Tax Havens,’ looks at the unfair advantages that large companies have as a result of tax evasion and the amount of revenue lost in tax havens. The report puts forth nine policy recommendations, which include banning offshore corporations and repealing the 80/20 rule.
On July 9, Raymond Baker and Tom Cardamone of Global Financial Integrity, leading coordinator of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development sent a letter to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to make comment on the IASB Dicussion Paper’s promotion of country-by-country reporting.
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