News
The IMF's strategy on anti-money laundering
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- Written by IMF
Press release of the IMF on anti-money laundering and combating financing for terrorism
Corporation tax in the EU: 107 billion Euro lost
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- Written by Michael Taft, Unite, Ireland
Back in 2000, the effective corporate tax rate in the Eurozone was 18.4 percent. By 2011, this had fallen to 12.5 percent. This may not seem like a lot but it is. This is equivalent to approximately €107 billion reduction in Eurozone corporate tax revenue. €107 billion.
Imagine if that revenue was available to the Eurozone: less tax on labour, more expenditure on public services and social protection, higher investment in telecommunications, renewable energy, and education (let’s not forget that there are 76 million people in the Eurozone at risk of poverty and social exclusion). That €107 billion would mean a significant boost to domestic demand which would, in turn, mean more prosperous markets for exporting firms to operate in.
Ground-breaking changes to fight money laundering
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- Written by Joint NGO media reaction
Joint NGO media reaction: Financial Transparency Coalition – Eurodad - Global Witness - Oxfam
NGOs welcome MEP's vote for ground-breaking changes to fight money laundering
A cross political party agreement in the European Parliament puts pressure on EU member states to step up the fight for corporate transparency
Soon it might be a lot harder for criminals, tax evaders, corrupt politicians and other money launderers to hide their identity and their illicit funds behind anonymous shell companies, following a key vote today in the European Parliament.
Read more: Ground-breaking changes to fight money laundering
OECD Announcement on Global Transparency
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- Written by GFI
GFI Applauds Historic OECD Announcement on Global Transparency of Financial Information
New Standard Ensures All Nations Can Potentially Benefit from Robust, Automatic Exchange of Financial Information
G20 Finance Ministers to Review Document for Approval Next Week Ahead of Australian G20 Summit in the Fall
Research and Advocacy Organization Expects New Transparency Regime to Be ‘Game-Changing’ Deterrent to Cross-Border Tax Evasion, Money Laundering
European Commissioner Semeta on FTT
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- Written by European Commission
Speech of Algirdas Semeta, member of the European Commission, on the Financial Transaction tax - European Parliament 4 February 2014.
The Greek Deputy PM of Greece, Mr. Venizelos, also addressed the EP Plenary on this issue: read the speech
European FTT
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- Written by Peter Wahl
FTT in German coalition agreement
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- Written by Peter Wahl/Weed
The coalition treaty between German Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats has been concluded.
As far as the FTT is concerned the relevant part reads (in my translation) as follows:
"We want to implement rapidly a broad based financial transaction tax in the framework of the Enhanced Cooperation Procedure in the EU. Such a tax should include preferably all financial instruments, in particular shares, bonds, investment certificates, currency transactions as well as derivatives. The tax should be designed in a way, which prevents tax avoidance. The effects of the tax on pensions, small investors and the real economy have to be assessed and negative consequences should be avoided, while undesired business models should be pushed back."
(Page 64).
First assessment:
UK Complaint againt FTT not valid
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- Written by Peter Wahl
Decent Work 2013
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- Written by ITUC
ITUC has launched a special website for the World Day for Decent Work, 7 october 2013: http://2013.wddw.org/
EU Commission is not giving up on FTT
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- Written by Valentina Pop/EUObserver
The European Commission has said it is not giving up on a planned financial transactions tax for 11 EU countries after a legal opinion said it was in breach of EU law.
"The European Commission is absolutely confident in the legality of the tax we have proposed. We reject any claims that it goes against the treaties or that it compromises the single market," EU tax commissioner Algirdas Semeta said on Saturday (14 September) after a meeting of EU finance ministers in Vilnius.
