Ekvilib

Ekvlilb Institute joined EURODAD's (European network for Debt and development) Fight Capital Flight campaign

Capital flight is a serious development issue. Tax evasion and avoidance represents a huge loss for developing countries. World Bank estimates show that US$500 billion to US$800 billion illicitly leave developing countries every year. Many of these flows, which dwarf global development assistance, are channeled through tax havens or 'secrecy jurisdictions', as we prefer to call them.  Over 65 per cent of these illicit flows are driven by transnational corporations’ tax evasion and tax avoidance schemes. Many of these companies come from Europe and many of the tax havens are also European. Tax havens should be closed down, as more and more decision-makers and commentators now agree.

European governments should ensure that the fight against illicit cross border flows is a key point in their agendas.  We are calling on politicians and their governments to take concrete measures at the national, European and international level to:

- dismantle European tax havens by ending bank secrecy in European territories and promoting the principle of automatic exchange of information with third countries;

- strengthen judicial cooperation to combat tax avoidance and tax evasion;

- refuse to bail out banks, financial institutions or enterprises that have subsidiaries in tax havens or that refuse to publish information on their activities and operations in these jurisdictions;

- call for the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to require transnational corporations to publish accounts with country per country breakdowns to get transparency on their activities, their profits and their payments to public authorities in every country where they operate;

- support the extension of the Extractive Industries’ Transparency Initiative through the disclosure of more disaggregated data and to other sectors including infrastructure;

- support developing countries introducing progressive tax systems;

- support the strengthening of  the United Nations Tax Committee, converting it into an inter-governmental body and lead on the adoption of a UN code of conduct on cooperation in the fight against capital flight.