Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Links Mar 27

TJN Latin America and Caribbean - Monthly Newsletter
February edition - includes articles written by network members and partners, significant news, calendar of events, campaigns and other information of interest.

Argentina: Tax evasion, capital flight and money laundering El Ruido de las Nueces (In Spanish)
Mar 23 - Jorge Gaggero explains how to confront these challenges, in the context of Argentina's historical currency fluctuation issues and curbing financial abuses through attention to foreign currency dealings.

Increased tax revenue is key to economic development in Latin America CEPAL
(In Spanish)
Jan 25 - "Latin American countries have made ​​great strides in the last two decades in increasing tax revenues." An important set of statistics.

Audio: Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent Task Force Blog
Mar 19 - On the launch of the book, Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent, at the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C.

German-Swiss Tax Deal Nearing Agreement Nasdaq
Mar 25 - "The German-Swiss tax agreement is close to being finalized, weekly Magazine Wirtschaftswoche reports, saying it obtained information that the Swiss government is willing to accept proposed reworks." See most recent TJN blog post on Rubik here.

Coutts fined 8.75 million pounds for money laundering failures Reuters
Mar 26 - "Coutts, best known as banker to The Queen, was fined 8.75 million pounds for "significant and widespread" failings in its money laundering controls, its second penalty for financial trangressions in four months."

See also:
Global Witness welcomes £8.75m fine against Coutt’s for corruption failings Global Witness

Mar 26 - Press release: "Global Witness welcomes news that the British regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has fined Coutts bank for failing to do enough to prevent corrupt funds from flowing through its accounts."

See also:
Coutts in the dock... but once again the taxpayer will pay price for City folly The Independent

Mar 27 - Coutts is owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, which, from the crisis bailout, is now "owned" by the UK taxpayer. This commentary observes: "As for the fine, it will ultimately be paid by Royal Bank's shareholders, which means the taxpayer. It will go towards the FSA's supervisory budget, which has been fattened by £25m in fines against RBS over the last two years. That money will do a lot to help keep fees down for other City firms that are a bit better managed ..."

See also:
RBC buys Coutts units from Royal Bank of Scotland Reuters

Mar 20 - "Royal Bank of Canada will buy some overseas divisions of the Coutts private banking business from Royal Bank of Scotland, giving RBC access to high net worth individuals in fast-growing emerging markets."

UK: Say no to tax avoidance for public service providers The Independent

Mar 24 - "If the Chancellor was serious about filling the gaping black hole in the country’s finances he’d have used the budget to stop the billions – yes billions of pounds that are gushing out of the economy every year via lawful offshore tax havens. Research by Ethical Consumer has made a valuable contribution to the growing campaign for tax justice ..."

UK: Budget 2012: The only two certainties in life are death and tax avoidance Guardian

Mar 25 - Interesting commentary on how tax cuts did not lead to less avoidance.

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