FTC and ICRICT's Pan-Continental Southern Dialogue on Illicit Financial Flows

The Financial Transparency Coalition (FTC)  with partners Freidrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), and the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), are organising two important events: a Pan-Continental Southern Dialogue on Illicit Financial Flows and the Pan-Continental Forum on the Future of Taxation of Multinational Corporations, November 21st to 23rd 2018, in Nairobi, Kenya.

With the participation of five ICRICT commissioners: Edmund Valpy Fitzgerald, Kim Jacinto Henares, Rev. Suzanne Matale, Ricardo Martner and Wayne Swan.

Tax avoidance by multinationals is one of the key elements of Illicit Financial Flows and estimated1 to result in a reduction of tax revenue of $400 billion for OECD countries (1% of their GDP) and $200 billion for lower-income countries (1.3% of their GDP). The current dysfunctional international taxation system based on the arm’s length principle and transfer pricing rules has allowed multinational enterprises to shift large portions of their overall profits from both developed and developing countries to low tax jurisdictions (tax havens) and avoid bearing their fair share of taxation. The G20 mandate for Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project was to reform tax rules so that MNEs could be ‘where economic activities occur and value is created’. However, the OECD’S BEPS project is failing on its mandate to ensure that profits are taxed where economic activities take place and value is created.

First meeting:

FTC’s Pan-Continental Southern-led Dialogue on illicit financial flows (IFFs) and financing development is bringing together regional platforms of tax administrators, global intergovernmental bodies and civil society organisations working on different aspects of illicit financial flows, financial secrecy, tax and development to discuss the role of regional cooperation in the Global South in mobilizing revenue for financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The meeting will act as a stepping stone towards informing global tax and development debates according to the differentiated realities of developing countries, addressing the lack of space for developing countries to design international tax norms, as well as proposals for advocacy and interventions at national, regional and global levels. Find out more here.

Second meeting :

ICRICT’s Pan-Continental Forum on the Future of Taxation of Multinational Corporations (November 23) is a one-day forum convening officials, experts and other stakeholders to consider the need for continued efforts for deeper reforms to the international corporate tax system, specifically the taxation of multinational enterprises. Find out more here.