On Sunday 20 September 2020, an international network of over 400 journalists coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the FinCEN Files – exposing the global movement of illicit financial flows through the international banking system.

Today, the European Court of Justice decided to annul the European Commission’s decision that Ireland’s tax treatment of Apple constituted illegal state aid.

The OECD’s Inclusive Framework does not allow all countries to participate on an equal footing. We believe that decisions on global tax rules should be made at the United Nations.

The Group of 77 (G77) – representing more than 130 developing countries – has repeatedly proposed the establishment of an intergovernmental tax body under the United Nations (UN) to fix the broken global tax system.

In 2016, in response to the tax scandal known as the ‘Panama Papers’, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a 5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Among other things, the Commission suggested introducing public registers of beneficial owners – something that civil society organisations and the European Parliament had been advocating for many years.

Together with members and allies from across Europe, Eurodad has submitted a response to the OECD consultation on the secretariat’s proposal for new international rules to determine the way taxing rights are allocated between countries. 

Cracks in the broken tax system exposed as the European court rules that a tax deal between Luxembourg and Fiat was illegal state aid, while another between the Netherlands and Starbucks was not.

Following the European elections in May, former German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen has assumed the role of President-elect of the European Commission. In July, von der Leyen, the first woman to take this post, released a concept paper titled “A Union that strives for more” and on Tuesday this week she unveiled the names of the new Commissioners.  And with these releases, the policy agenda of the next European Commission, mandated to govern until 2024, is slowly taking shape. In response, we ask what are the implications for development finance?   

Today, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released another ground breaking tax exposure. The #MauritiusLeaks show how multinational corporations from all over the world have used Mauritius to avoid taxes, including on their own operations in some of the world’s poorest countries.

As G20 leaders meet this weekend to debate the state of the global financial and economic system, there is no shortage of problems to discuss.