http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/11/20/the-sec-wants-country-by-country-reporting/ Richard Murphy on tax and corporate accountability Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:40:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/11/20/the-sec-wants-country-by-country-reporting/#comment-279825 Rob Lewis Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:25:40 +0000 http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/11/20/the-sec-wants-country-by-country-reporting/#comment-279825 Unfortunately, rather than a springboard for better accounting principles, I think this effort by the SEC has far more to do with US foreign policy. Rather than being driven by investor need, I think the rationale is more centrally imposed, and Washington intends to use this in order to enforce some very questionable sanctions - the listed terrorist-sponsoring states are Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba and North Korea. Opinons on whether sancitons against all five are justifiable will vary but surely sanctions aginst Cuba, for example, are laughable. If the motivation is questionable, I'm not sure this will end up advancing the (laudable) cause of transparency. Unfortunately, rather than a springboard for better accounting principles, I think this effort by the SEC has far more to do with US foreign policy. Rather than being driven by investor need, I think the rationale is more centrally imposed, and Washington intends to use this in order to enforce some very questionable sanctions - the listed terrorist-sponsoring states are Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba and North Korea. Opinons on whether sancitons against all five are justifiable will vary but surely sanctions aginst Cuba, for example, are laughable. If the motivation is questionable, I’m not sure this will end up advancing the (laudable) cause of transparency.

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