Catholic organisations on tax and financing for development

We warmly welcome a new report by CIDSE, an alliance of 16 European and North American Catholic development organisations. It is concerned with the crucial issue of "Finance for Development" - and helps prepare the ground for the Doha summit meeting in November and December this year.

The report contains very many excellent recommendations. These, include:

• More effective international co-operation on fiscal matters
• The adoption of a UN Code of Conduct on tax evasion and avoidance
• Upgrading the UN Tax Committee
• Giving developing countries policy space to develop effective progressive taxation
• Strengthening judicial co-operation between states on tax and corruption, and on repatriating stolen assets (see here for an example of why this might be important)
• Getting the IMF to monitor financial centres properly
• Strengthening the follow-up process.
  

The report is worth reading in full.