OECD’s “BEPS” Report to G20 Fails to Endorse Country-by-Country Reporting for Multinational Companies, a Necessary Precursor to Curtail Corporate Tax Dodging
G20 Should Embrace Disaggregated Accounting Standard
WASHINGTON, DC – A new report on tackling corporate tax dodging released today from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) failed to embrace full country-by-country reporting for all multinational companies, eliciting disappointment from Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization. Grounded in its rigorous economic and legal research, GFI has for years recommended requiring multinational companies to publicly disclose sales, profits made, taxes paid, subsidiaries, and staff levels on a country-by-country basis as a necessary transparency measure to detect and deter abusive tax avoidance.
Tom Cardamone
Christine Clough, PMP
Five years after the financial crisis hit, the G8 finally seems to be serious about addressing the issue of financial opacity and illicit outflows. During a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, UK Prime Minister and current G8 Chair David Cameron outlined his agenda for the Lough Eurne Summit to focus on a special blend of ‘T’: trade, tax, and transparency. He has called for “a more serious debate” on tax compliance and fairness, including the topics of automatic exchange of tax information and abusive tax avoidance. His transparency plan weaves strands of beneficial ownership disclosure and country-by-country reporting to his “golden thread” for development. The trade outline has a similar focus on openness, but it needs some direction.
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
GFI Optimistic That Decision Will Not Ultimately Prevent Implementation of Strong Extractives Transparency in the United States
Organization Urges U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to Promptly Revise and Reissue Rules
WASHINGTON DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) expressed disappointment today at the decision by Judge John D. Bates of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to vacate key extractive industry transparency rules. The decision prevents the rules from taking effect until the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revises the rules to address the court’s concerns.
The rules—which the SEC finalized last summer after two years of deliberation—implemented Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Also known as the “Cardin-Lugar provision,” this statute requires all oil, gas, and mining companies that report to the SEC to publicly disclose all of the payments they make to governments worldwide. The rules took effect in September of this year despite the lawsuit, with companies due to file their first reports in 2014.
E.J. Fagan, +1 202 293 0740 ext. 227
Despite Acknowledging Dangers of Phantom Firms, Obama Administration & G8 Fail to Endorse Public Corporate Ownership Registries
G8 Leaders Allow Multinationals to Continue Aggressive Tax Avoidance in the Dark
World Leaders Endorse Global Automatic Exchange of Tax Information, Transparency in Extractive Industries at Lough Erne Summit
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) welcomed the statements from G8 leaders today reiterating the significant progress that has been made to crack down on international tax evasion and supporting a global standard of automatic tax information exchange, but the research and advocacy organization expressed disappointment in the White House and world leaders for failing to fully address the need for transparency in multinational companies’ basic financial reporting and in corporate ownership.
U.S. President Urged to Join David Cameron’s Call for Public Registries of Beneficial Ownership Information at G8 Summit Next Week
Multilateral Automatic Exchange of Tax Information Should Be Global Norm, Expanded to Developing Countries
Country-by-Country Reporting by Multinational Companies Essential to Deter & Expose Abusive Tax Dodging
WASHINGTON, DC – As G8 leaders prepare to meet Monday and Tuesday in Northern Ireland, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) called on U.S. President Barack Obama to take aggressive action to curtail illicit financial flows and support public disclosure of corporate ownership information as essential to reducing crime, corruption, tax evasion, and terrorist financing. Under the leadership of British Prime Minister David Cameron, the G8 Summit is expected to focus on curbing abusive tax dodging and corruption.
European Parliament Passes Landmark Transparency Provisions for Oil, Gas, Mining, and Logging Companies
Canadian PM Harper Announces Intent to Adopt Similar Policies for Canadian Firms
G8 Urged to Make Disclosure Global Norm at Next Week’s Summit; Expand Country-by-Country Reporting to Firms in All Sectors
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) lauded the European Parliament today for adopting new transparency rules for all EU listed extractive industries companies as well as all large, privately held extractive industries companies incorporated in the EU. Announced informally by European leaders in April, the rules were officially adopted by the Parliament Wednesday in what GFI referred to as a major victory for anti-corruption proponents. Also on Wednesday, the Canadian government announced that it intended to move forward to enact similar rules, a move lauded by GFI, a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization.
Tom Cardamone
The French, it has oft been said, have a wonderful way with language. What sounds rather bland in English, rolls off the French tongue with a touch of elegance and élan. And so it is with the rather clumsy term the English-speaking world uses when referring to where many people hide their wealth from prying eyes: tax haven. The French have a far more pleasant term for these places: they call it a paradis fiscal, a fiscal paradise.
Fiscal paradise, doesn’t that sound much better? No references to unseemly topics like taxes, or worse, worrying about whether to pay them. By using the French term, all the tawdry dealings of the rich and powerful get a makeover that would make any Caribbean hotel spa proud. All that might be sinister or criminal about what is hiding behind the veil of a nominee trust or an anonymous shell company seems somehow rather innocuous when it happens in ‘paradise.’
UN High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda Makes Reducing Illicit Financial Flows and Tax Evasion an Explicit Anti-Poverty Goal
GFI Calls on G8 Leaders to Now Take Action at Northern Ireland Summit
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) today praised the United Nations High-Level Panel (HLP) of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda for making the curtailment of illicit financial flows and tax evasion an explicit goal of the global anti-poverty agenda following the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. The report from the HLP, published late last week, follows the release of a new joint study by GFI and the African Development Bank which found illicit financial outflows drained roughly $1.3 trillion from Africa over the past thirty years, making the continent a net creditor to the rest of the world of up to $1.4 trillion.
