Rethinking FinanceAlternative voices for a new financial architecture

Recently citizens and civil society organizations all over Europe have been stepping up the push for the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). The large support for the FTT is due to its triple benefit: it has huge potential as a new source of revenue for public budgets, it would contribute to the stabilisation of financial markets, and it would be an invaluable tool for the tax justice movement ─ all of which is badly needed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Eurodad member CCFD-Terre Solidaire supports the start that the French government is making towards tackling tax havens: the government has announced that it will publish a list of tax havens, with specific sanctions -demonstrating that it is taking the issue seriously. Furthermore, the list will be revised every year. But the measures France is putting in place leave a lot to be desired. 

New research by US think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI) shows that developing countries are losing up to $US 107 billion per year in tax revenues as a result of trade mispricing by multinational companies, and the figure is growing each year. The amount represents an average of 4.4% of the entire developing world’s average revenue.

This year, donor countries will decide on their financial contributions to the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) for 2011-2014.