From U.S. Senator Carl Levin: WASHINGTON – The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations today urged the Department of Justice to seek extradition of Swiss residents whom the DOJ has charged with tax evasion offenses. … [Read more...]
Finance Sector
Links Mar 18
'Yanukovych Leaks' documents abuse of office DeutscheWelle Presidential residence owned by an Austrian company, which in turn was owned by a British firm, that was controlled by a trust in Liechtenstein. ' "If Yanukovych had run his country's affairs like he did his private life in Mezhyhirya, we … [Read more...]
Links Mar 14
Money laundering: Own up, owners The Economist Insight into the status and potential of beneficial ownership transparency, following this week's European Parliament vote "to back open registers for companies, trusts, foundations and practically any other corporate vehicle or legal arrangement that … [Read more...]
Links Mar 11
European Parliament gives overwhelming ‘yes’ vote to end secret corporate ownership Eurodad See also: MEPs vote for public registers on company ownership European Voice - But, UK Prime Minister does not want the rules applied to trusts … [Read more...]
Letter on derivatives: stop the offshore race to the bottom
Wall Street banks trade perhaps half of their derivatives activities through foreign banks. For them, foreign jurisdictions are an obvious escape route from U.S. financial regulations. Last June, Marcus Stanley of Americans for Financial Reform wrote: … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: A week in tax justice
Our weekly Offshore Wrapper, by George Turner The end of decency For years the attitude towards Russia from major offshore financial centres such as the City of London has been: “Give us your money, we don’t care where it comes from.” … [Read more...]
Links Mar 7
Swiss parliament relaxes terms for tax data exchange swissinfo "Parliament has approved a legal amendment that tax evaders will not always have to be told if Switzerland sends information about them to other countries." But to what extent is this just lip-service? How do trusts, foundations and … [Read more...]
Links Mar 6
IMF Launches International Public Consultation Taxation International News& Information "The IMF is looking into how the tax policies of different countries can potentially interact to unintentionally facilitate tax evasion, aggressive tax planning, and excessive profit shifting." … [Read more...]
European Union Savings Tax Directive Amendments – coming very soon?
We have written at length about the European Union Savings Tax Directive (EUSD), a scheme involving 43 European countries and other participating jurisdictions to tackle tax evasion by exchanging appropriate information automatically with each other. … [Read more...]
Renting Judges for Secret Rulings in Delaware
Back in 1974 William Cary wrote a widely cited article about Delaware in the Yale Law Review, where he stated: "a pygmy among the 50 states prescribes, interprets, and indeed denigrates national corporate policy as an incentive to encourage incorporation within its borders, thereby increasing its … [Read more...]
Links Mar 4
Black money: Switzerland refuses to share information on bank account holders, Delhi mulls strong response The Economic Times India, US to intensify cooperation in tax evasion cases The Economic Times … [Read more...]
Ukraine: how to put pressure on Russia
Following our blog yesterday looking at the national security implications of Europe's tax haven mentality, we have been drawn to this post from 2008, looking at the West's options in dealing with Russian aggression in Georgia at the time. It lists several interesting possibilities, but we found … [Read more...]
Tax justice is good for growth: IMF
We recently briefly blogged an IMF report describing how economic inequality leads to slower economic growth. Now, in the Financial Times, a fascinating comment article by the IMF Deputy Research Director Jonathan Ostry, whose subtitle is "A more redistributive tax system appears to lead to … [Read more...]
Why Russia no longer fears the West. It’s the offshore, stupid
If there's one story you read today make it this one, from Politico Magazine. It's triggered by the crisis in Ukraine, but it's been a long time coming. The point of this short story is clear: Western leaders are waking up to the fact that Russia no longer fears or even respects them. Why? … [Read more...]
Anonymous UK company owned Viktor Yanukovych’s presidential palace compound
From Global Witness - see also Daily Mail and The Independent. Update: see also this important blog, looking at the national security implications of all this corruption. Anonymous UK company owned Viktor Yanukovych’s presidential palace compound 1 March 2014 The private residence of the … [Read more...]
