Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Nine organisations including TJN yesterday sent a letter to the Finance Ministers of G20 countries to call for:

1. Supporting a truly multilateral agreement for automatic exchange of information between jurisdictions, including the disclosure of beneficial ownership of assets and trusts. At the very least, a robust review mechanism must be put in place to evaluate the extent to which developing countries have been able to benefit from progress on information exchange.

2. Supporting an international accounting standard requiring multinational companies to report profits on a country-by-country basis. The OECD is currently investigating this proposal. We urge all G20 members to take an interest in this investigation and to use the St Andrews’ summit to request a formal report from the OECD to the G20.

Both measures aim effectively to combat tax evasion and, therefore, should be incorporated in regional and bilateral investment agreements with developing countries.

Read letter

"Si, aujourd’hui, l’évasion fiscale est égale à la fraude fiscale, et donc un crime, chaque Suisse en est complice pour avoir profité de la prospérité que nous a amenée tout cet argent étranger pendant des années!"

(Free translation: If today tax evasion is equal to tax fraud, and is therefore a crime, everyone in Switzerland is accomplice for having accepted the prosperity which brought us all this foreign money for years!”)

Source: Le Temps

Bloomberg has reported that two leading U.S. lawmakers proposed legislation that would impose new taxes on foreign banks that refuse to disclose the identity and contents of accounts owned by Americans.

The measure would impose a 30 percent withholding tax on income from U.S. assets held by non-U.S. institutions that refuse to name American account holders and report balances, deposits and withdrawals.

However the bill disappointed some of the most-aggressive critics of offshore-tax avoidance. It doesn't include a proposal from Mr. Obama to establish legal presumptions that favor the IRS in prosecuting suspected tax dodgers. It also leaves out more-stringent proposals from other lawmakers, including one that would treat offshore corporations as U.S. firms for tax purposes if their senior executives were located in the U.S. (see WSJ)