Saturday, June 9, 2012

Dodd Frank Regs & Getting the Gov to obey the law

Davis Polk has charted the progress of Dodd Frank rulemaking to date:

Source: FT Alphaville

The extractive industries corporate tax transparency regs would be within the red band in category "investor protection/securities laws," as we know these are hotly contested by industry and have been shamefully delayed over a year now since the deadline for their issuance (April of 2011).

Oxfam, one of the activist groups in the corporate tax transparency movement, filed a lawsuit against the SEC in respect of the failure to issue regs as the law requires.  From the press release, available at the financial task force:

International relief and development organization Oxfam America has today filed a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for unlawfully delaying the issuance of a Final Rule implementing a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act that requires disclosure of payments from oil, gas and mining companies to the United States and foreign governments. ...[T]his provision would provide information to investors and citizens in resource-rich countries, help stem corruption, and encourage the accountable use of billions of dollars in annual revenues from the oil, gas and mining sector. 
Congress set a deadline of April 17, 2011, for the SEC’s promulgation of the final rule that is needed to bring Section 1504 into effect. The SEC has now missed this statutory deadline by one year and one month. Oxfam America notified the SEC on April 16, 2012 that it would file suit if the regulatory agency did not issue a final rule within 30 days. As Oxfam America’s lawsuit states, “the extractive payment disclosures that Congress mandated nearly two years ago will not take place unless and until the SEC issues a Final Rule. Unfortunately, the SEC’s pattern of delay gives no assurance that it will ever promulgate a Final rule without the involvement of this Court.” The SEC issued a proposed rule on December 15, 2010.
A while back I posted the story about UK Uncut suing the UK tax authority for cutting generous deals with Goldman Sachs.  I wondered how they could do that, is there taxpayer standing etc.  Thanks to some of you reading this I have a clearer picture of how that can be now, will post more on this after I see what I can find out about the Oxfam suit.






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