Expert Global Commission Responds to One-sided Tax Debate

New York (ots/PRNewswire) -

Inaugural Meeting to drive changes ahead of Post-2015 Ambition

Responding to widespread anger about corporate tax avoidance, the
impacts of such avoidance on inequality and poverty, and concerns
that current tax reform processes are inadequate, a new nonpartisan
body-the Independent Commission for the Reform of International
Corporate Taxation (ICRICT)-has been established to propose reforms
from the perspective of the public interest.

The inaugural meeting of the Commission will take place in New
York on March 18-19, 2015. The Commission's Chair, former UN
Under-Secretary-General Jose Antonio Ocampo, says: "The world has
changed but the international tax system has not. Corporations play
governments against each other, for example, in encouraging
race-to-the-bottom tax incentives, and the public loses out. There
are billions of dollars at stake. This Commission will shed light on
where the rules of the game, and the institutions that govern them,
need to change."

The Commission includes prominent economic experts and political
leaders from around the world: Eva Joly, Rev. Suzanne Matale, Manuel
Montes, Leonce Ndikumana, Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, Govinda Rao,
Magdalena Sepulveda, and Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning
economist. On March 18, the Commission will hear from business,
academic, labor, governmental and civil society experts on potential
reforms.

Mr Ocampo notes that, "Tax policy affects everybody but for too
long the debates have been presented as technical and reserved only
for tax lawyers and accountants. There is a desperate need to bridge
the gap between the technical challenges and everyone's right to
participate and provide solutions."

The Commission will produce a set of recommendations in the
context of the on-going UN Financing for Development agenda and the
G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative.

The current international tax system reinforces global inequality
and hampers poverty reduction-and without changes, will continue to
worsen economic and social inequality, including through forcing cuts
to vital public services and hindering fulfilment of the post-2015
development agenda. Issues such as fairer allocation of tax rights
between source and residence countries, public country-by-country
reporting, and requirements for corporations to reveal the location
of financial assets will be examined.

Notes to Editors:

- ICRICT was initiated by a broad coalition that includes Action Aid,
Alliance-Sud, CCFD-Terre Solidaire, Christian Aid, the Council for Global Unions, the
Global Alliance for Tax Justice, Oxfam, Public Services International, Tax Justice
Network and the World Council of Churches and is supported by
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
- Written interventions from the public ahead of the March hearing are welcome.
The hearing is open to the public and media. Submissions to the Commission may be
emailed before March 18, 2015 to info@icrict.org. Press are invited to register
for the March 18 noon press briefing at the Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington Ave, 16th
Floor, New York by sending an email to info@icrict.org.
- ICRICT Commissioners may be available for interviews in their respective
countries between March 11-18, 2015. See media contacts below to request interviews
and biographies.
- For more info on ICRICT: http://www.icrict.org / On the UN Tax Committee:
http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/tax

ots Originaltext: Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation-ICRICT
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Contact:
Media contacts: Erika Siu, ICRICT Consultant, New York -
Erika.Siu@icrict.org; +1-212-571-0581; Sue Rooks, Oxfam International
Media
Officer, New York - Sue.Rooks@oxfaminternational.org;
+1-917-224-0834;
Teresa Marshall, Campaigns + Communications, Global Alliance for Tax
Justice - Teresa@GlobalTaxJustice.org; +1-250 899 7488; Vittorio
Longhi,
Communications Consultant, Public Services International, Rome -
Vittorio.Longhi@world-psi.org