With the Panama Papers now accessible, President Barack Obama is taking executive action on transparency in tax matters and also asking Congress to approve pending bilateral tax treaties and to pass Beneficial Ownership legislation to guarantee reciprocity between the U.S. and other governments on Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act matters. (Forbes, May 9, 2016, by Robert W. Wood)
But less than ten years ago, in their haste to serve business interests and promote free trade, President Barack Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed free trade agreements that critics said would hurt efforts to curb global tax evasion. (International Business Times, April 4, 2016, by Clark Mindock and David Siorota)
Now the database from the Panama Papers promises to reveal to the public the detailed workings of offshore finance. Some 214,000 documents range from 1977 through 2015. (The Washington Post, May 9, 2016, by Ana Swanson)
The Washington Post and The New York Times have just signed onto the collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to investigate the leads revealed in the Panama Papers. Of U.S. news outlets, only McClatchy and Univision/Fusion had joined the project. (NiemanLab, May 10, 2016, by Alicia Shepard)