http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jun/08/david-cameron-g8-anti-corruption-deal
David Cameron‘s hopes of securing at the G8 summit next week a major anti-corruption agreement that would force companies to reveal who really owns them is hanging by a thread, amid fierce opposition from both the Russian and Canadian governments, as well as from many members of the US Congress.
The prime minister believes new rules to make company ownership transparent are crucial, and has made it a key goal of UK diplomacy as he prepares to chair the gathering of world leaders which begins a week tomorrow. However, the Observer understands that goal is now in jeopardy, opening up the possibility that there will be no deal endorsed by all parties, a potentially embarrassing result for the UK as summit chair.
And more:
However, aid agencies now fear Cameron’s plan risks being derailed by other G8 members. Russia is resisting because of its extensive interests in Cyprus. Canada is also opposed, while many US politicians are against the plan because it would have an impact on Delaware, the low-tax, light regulation US state where some 200,000 companies are registered.
The impasse is considered so serious by Number 10 that Cameron is to discuss the issue with President Obama in a transatlantic phone call later this week.
It is understood UK diplomats have been instructed to continue pushing the proposal right up to the summit, even if it risks the UK failing to get a deal. “We are concerned not all countries are going to sign up,” said Robert Palmer of campaign group Global Witness. “This is about the world’s biggest economies saying ‘we are going to get our houses in order’.”
Does anyone really think that countries with tax havens or that are heavily invested in them would go along with this? And why is the UK pushing for it? On behalf of the USG?
I am confused. What does all this really mean for ordinary people and why is Canada opposed?
Is there a version of this for dummies?
This all speaks to the blatant hypocrisy practised by just about everyone, but especially the Americans. They foist FATCA on the world to get after offshore US tax cheats and tax havens, but balk at any suggestion that maybe they should expose their own tax havens to the same scrutiny. I admit to being puzzled by the Canadian position on this.
Maybe a G-8 rebuff on transparency, led by the Americans, will wake people up to the staggering levels of hypocrisy at play in Congress, and make them reconsider whether or not there’s any point in cooperating on FATCA through an IGA. I can hope, but I won’t hold my breath.
More hope is it has something to do with where Harper is leaning towards on signing an IGA but to be clear I have no idea.
Tim
What would be the interest of the UK that Delaware secrecy remains?
This doesn’t make any sense. This whole thing is just way above the lay person’s understanding.
One gets the feeling that there is a whole lot of balls in play behind the scenes at the moment. For example, the Canadian Defense Minister met with the Chinese Defense Minister this week to discuss, among other things, joint military maneuvers. A partnership. Uncle Sam can’t be pleased.
If Harper is leaning, it may be towards independence b/c there is no way the US is going to sit still for it’s northern border neighbor playing army with China.
An article in the Globe and Mail may help with some understanding of what’s going on.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/pmo-tempers-expectations-of-striking-eu-free-trade-deal-at-g8-meetings/article12411353/
Mr. Cameron said this year that he wants new rules aimed at “shining a light on company ownership, land ownership and where money flows from and to.” Advocacy groups – such as Avaaz, Global Witness and Canadians for Tax Fairness – say their sources indicate Canada is resisting calls that would require countries to publicly report the names of the primary owners of companies. The proposal – called beneficial ownership – is meant to prevent problems associated with shell companies. They say Canada is also resisting a British proposal for countries to automatically exchange financial information so that countries are aware of any offshore accounts their citizens or registered corporations may have.
That would fit with recent developments in the House of Commons, where the Conservative-dominated finance committee chose not to recommend automatic exchanges after studying the issue of offshore tax havens earlier this year.
The committee’s final report did however call on Ottawa to require companies to report beneficial ownership. It also pledges support for continuing international efforts to “address base erosion and profit shifting.”
Ok, so Canada is not cool with automatic data exchange or outing actual ownership of companies. Still doesn’t tell us why or if this effects FATCA and the IGA.
@yoga girl
None of this stuff is simple — and the Harper government’s penchant for obfuscation makes it hard to know what’s really going on. But I suspect the Fatca connection lies in the fact that it is indeed an automatic data exchange — for US persons only, but a data exchange (albeit in one direction) no less.
If Harper is balking at the general concept of automatic exchange, then perhaps he’s also having second thoughts about signing a fatca IGA. Remember that Flaherty said before Christmas 2012 that the US and Canada were close on an IGA — here we are in June now and there’s nothing. My bank sources have told me more than once that Harper is holding out for something in the IGA, something the Americans don’t want to give.
Who knows what that is — but given that Canada has the biggest number of US persons to be affected — along with their families — maybe he wants them all grandfathered or something.
I’m encouraged that Cameron is feeling the heat, and that it’s coming at least in part from a sense that the US will not open up Delaware to any outside scrutiny or have the state submit to any transparency provisions. It is quite clear that should the US agree to that, there would be hell to pay in congress and the congressional hypocrisy would be exposed in all its glory — maybe even the US media would notice.
Anyway, just Sunday morning ravings on my part — based on nothing but hunches.
Oops — typo attacks. These damn iPad keyboards!
Arrow, grandfathering existing accounts? That would be pretty much the only way to protect non-US spouses, business partners and employers/others who employ USP’s who have signatory authority. Although, it’s just as possible that Harper is holding the IGA hostage for something unrelated like KeystoneXL (which is just the kind of short-sighted thinking that govts are known for). The defense ministers meeting with China on the 4th with the G8 coming up can’t be mere coincidence, imo, but I can’t really think how it can’t be viewed as a message – to whom and about what though remains to be seen.
The conspiracy theorists are chattering like cicadas again this last week. I am not liking living in interesting times.
@YogaGirl: “One gets the feeling that there is a whole lot of balls …”
You could have stopped right there 🙂
Watcher, lmao
Unless Cameron is doing this as a ploy to cause the US Feds to back off the FATCA thing (and I doubt that he has the brains to do that) then I must call him a disgrace to the Conservative party that Margaret Thatcher let behind … in her language ….. he is a “wet”.
What might this Harper/G8 article mean — referring to GATCA model; talks about corporate entities as well as individuals? All tax evasion; all tax cheats, ad naseum. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/14/g8-tax-evasion-stephen-harper_n_3437802.html