In June 2011, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), published it’s second public consultation paper seeking input as the organization conducts a review of its 40+9 Recommendations. Attached is the official response from the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development (Task Force).
PARIS – Furthering efforts to fight against international tax evasion and bank secrecy, members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes have issued 12 new peer review reports.
PARIS (OECD) – Due to the recent financial and economic crisis, global corporate losses have increased significantly. Numbers at stake are vast, with loss carry-forwards as high as 25% of GDP in some countries. Though most of these claims are justified, some corporations find loop-holes and use ‘aggressive tax planning’ to avoid taxes in ways that are not within the spirit of the law.
WASHINGTON – Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, this week introduced the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act to combat acts of terrorism, money laundering, tax evasion, and other wrongdoing facilitated by U.S. corporations with hidden owners. The bill would end the practice of the 50 States forming corporations for unidentified persons, and instead require the States to obtain the identities of the persons behind the corporations.
PARIS – Greece’s ambitious programme to tackle its economic crisis can succeed in rebuilding growth, jobs and living standards if the reforms are fully implemented, according to a new OECD report.
This report is the first that PCS has produced on the subject of tax havens. It has prepared it for four reasons. First, PCS is committed to a fair, progressive tax system. It sees tax havens (or secrecy jurisdictions as we prefer to call them) as a threat to the establishment of such a
system. This report notes that the UK might lose up to £18 billion a year as a result of the use of tax havens. This loss contributes significantly to the overall UK tax gap that PCS believes currently amounts to at least £120 billion.
WASHINGTON – Stating that “Uncle Sam can’t afford offshore tax abuses that are robbing the Treasury of $100 billion in lost revenue yearly and increasing the tax burden on honest, hardworking Americans,” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., together with cosponsors Senator Bill Nelson, Sanders, Shaheen, and Whitehouse, today introduced legislation to close offshore tax loopholes and strengthen offshore tax enforcement.
Mr. President, I am introducing today with my colleagues Senators Bill Nelson, Sanders, Shaheen, and Whitehouse, the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, legislation which is geared to stop the $100 billion yearly drain on the U.S. treasury caused by offshore tax abuses. Offshore tax abuses are not only undermining public confidence in our tax system, but widening the deficit and increasing the tax burden on middle America.
PARIS – The OECD is pleased to announce that Rinatro Tamaki has been appointed as Deputy Secretary-General.
PARIS – The OECD and India have announced plans to strengthen ongoing co-operation on tax-related issues through the development of a three-year partnership that will provide greater opportunities for structured dialogue and sharing of information.
In 1999 leaders from OECD countries took a big step. They committed to holding their companies to account for their behaviour abroad. Until then, bribing abroad to win contracts had largely been tacitly accepted and was even a tax deductible expense in at least 14 OECD countries.
ISTANBUL – State Secretary Ingrid Fiskaa spoke at the Fourth UN Conference on the LDCs, identifying illicit financial flows due to trade mispricing, tax evasion, trafficking, the drugs and arms trade, and corruption as one of the structural causes of poverty as well as one of the major threats facing sustainable development, along with climate change, armed conflicts, and a lack of political and economic empowerment for women and girls.
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