The final report of Michael Foot’s Review of the opportunities and challenges facing the British Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey) and six Overseas Territories (Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Turks and Caicos Islands) was published on 29 October. The recommendations made to these jurisdictions cover: the quality and extent of economic planning; meeting international standards on tax transparency, financial sector regulation, and tackling financial crime; ensuring that deposit protection schemes can be understood by depositors; considering whether an Ombudsman scheme is justified; and crisis prevention and resolution measures.
Summary: Recent events have highlighted the growing use of foreign financial institutions, foreign trusts, and foreign corporations by U.S. individuals to evade U.S. tax. In order to prevent this tax evasion, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 would provide the U.S. Treasury Department with significant new tools to find and prosecute U.S. individuals that hide assets overseas from the Internal Revenue Service.
Statement by President Barack Obama on House and Senate Introducing Legislation to Crack Down on Overseas Tax Havens
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released the following statement from Secretary Tim Geithner on the introduction of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009:
Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D?Mont.), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D?NY), senior Senate Finance Committee member John Kerry (D?MA) and Ways and Means Select Revenue Subcommittee Chairman Richard Neal (D?MA) today unveiled a comprehensive proposal to clamp down on tax evasion and improve taxpayer compliance by giving the IRS new administrative tools to detect, deter and discourage offshore tax abuses.
“Economic Transparency: Curtailing the Shadow Financial System” provides an overview of the work that the Task Force is doing. From laying out the framework of our mission, to detailing the specifics of each priority, this document is an excellent all in one resource.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) have jointly conducted an assessment of the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) standards in Aruba.
A side event at the World Bank/IMF Meetings in Istanbul
The final communiqué from the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh.
Today, the US and Swiss Governments formally signed the “Protocol Amending The Convention Between The Swiss Confederation And The United States Of America For The Avoidance Of Double Taxation With Respect To Taxes On Income, Signed At Washington On October 2, 1996.” Attached is the text of the protocol, and below are notes from the US and notes from the Swiss clarifying certain points.
The private sector plays a pivotal role in fighting corruption worldwide. Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report 2009 documents in unique detail the many corruption risks for businesses, ranging from small entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa to multinationals from Europe and North America. More than 75 experts examine the scale, scope and devastating consequences of a wide range of corruption issues, including bribery and policy capture, corporate fraud, cartels, corruption in supply chains and transnational transactions, emerging challenges for carbon trading markets, sovereign wealth funds and, growing economic centres, such as Brazil, China and India.
The Energy Security Through Transparency (ESTT) Act takes important steps towards reversing the resource curse by revealing payments made here and abroad to governments for oil, gas and minerals. The resource curse describes a phenomenon in which countries with rich natural resource endowments often end up with high rates of poverty, corruption, conflict, and poor governance rather than prosperity. Good governance in extractive industries contribute to a better domestic investment climate for U.S. businesses, increase the reliability of commodity supplies, promote greater U.S. energy security and thereby strengthen our national security.
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