January 15, 2025
“Just the FACTs” is a round-up of news stories and information regarding efforts to combat corrupt financial practices, including offshore tax haven abuses, corporate secrecy, and money laundering through the financial system.
Send feedback or items for future newsletters to Thomas Georges at [email protected] |
Here’s the State of Play:
FACT Seeks Executive Director to Lead Next Phase of Impact
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After five transformational years at the Coalition, FACT’s Executive Director, Ian Gary, will be stepping down in the coming months. Mr. Gary has successfully led FACT through a period of coalition growth and sustained policy impact even amidst unprecedented political changes. Now, FACT is seeking a dynamic, highly-qualified Executive Director to lead us through our next phase of impact and growth.
The new Executive Director will lead collaborative processes to shape and refine FACT’s strategic vision, direct fundraising efforts, oversee FACT staff and consultants, and continue to build our coalition by expanding the engagement of members and allies, and by recruiting new member groups. The successful candidate will have experience as a leader at a non-profit, policy, philanthropic, or advocacy-focused organization. Candidates who are qualified by experience, skill, and personal motivation can find more information about the position, including how to apply, here.
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Global Minimum Tax Lives to Fight Another Day, Despite Largely Exempting U.S. Companies |
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On January 5, 2026, the OECD issued new guidance making sweeping changes to the groundbreaking global corporate minimum tax regime, called Pillar Two. Under a new “safe harbor,” U.S. corporations are exempt from certain Pillar Two taxes, allowing them to keep using foreign tax havens. This news is a setback for multilateral tax cooperation, and follows months of retaliatory threats by House Republicans and the Trump Administration.
The new guidance implements a previous G-7 understanding from June. Notably, the exemption for U.S. companies depends on the U.S. maintaining at least a 20% corporate tax rate and a sufficiently strong corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT), as well as a tax on corporate income abroad. The Pillar Two global minimum tax is the law in more than 60 jurisdictions around the globe.
FACT’s reaction to the news was quoted in more than 20 global publications, including Associated Press, Guardian, Newsweek, Tax Notes, and Politico. For a more detailed discussion of the OECD guidance, see FACT’s latest policy brief.
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Corporate Transparency Wins in Federal Court, While New York State Law Suffers Setback |
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On December 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), a landmark anti-money laundering law that requires certain U.S. entities to provide basic identifying information to the Treasury Department about their true, or “beneficial”, owners. The appellate court, in a reversal of a lower court decision, decided that the CTA is a constitutional exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause, as it clearly regulates activity that is “economic in nature.” It is unclear if plaintiffs will request review from the U.S. Supreme Court.
During the 11th Circuit’s deliberation, several amici curiae (“friends of the court”) – including bipartisan Members of Congress, national security and anti-corruption experts, and tax law experts – filed briefs in support of the Government’s position that the CTA was constitutional. In a statement following the decision, FACT deputy director Erica Hanichak commented that “The Court’s decision confirms what Congress understood and intended when it originally passed this legislation: that anonymous companies are drivers of fraud, drug trafficking, and the threats posed by terrorists and transnational criminal organizations.”
Despite this significant legal victory for the CTA, the law’s implementation remains largely on hold, due to a misguided and unlawful Treasury decision last year to exempt nearly all reporting entities.
Also in December, beneficial ownership reporting in New York suffered a setback when Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed legislation that would have effectively reintroduced the full suite of CTA-style reporting requirements for in-state companies. In 2023, New York passed its own LLC Transparency Act, which establishes similar safeguards against abuses involving anonymous companies, and pegs its definition of reporting company to that in the CTA. Because the federal law has been gutted to cover only a negligible portion of all in-scope entities, Governor Hochul’s veto – which maintains the status quo definition – effectively eliminates beneficial ownership reporting requirements in New York.
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Treasury Finalizes Delay of Long-Awaited Anti-Money Laundering Safeguards for Private Investment Markets |
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On December 31, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) officially postponed the implementation of groundbreaking anti-money laundering safeguards for the $130 trillion U.S. private investment sector. The investment advisor rule – potentially subject to revisions – will now take effect on January 1, 2028, two years after the original effective date.
When this delay was announced, FACT submitted comments to FinCEN warning that the move left key illicit finance vulnerabilities unaddressed. These warnings went unheeded, despite Treasury’s own most recent National Risk Assessment finding that exempt reporting advisers – like those working for private equity firms, hedge funds, and venture capital firms – pose a high illicit finance risk. The longer this sector remains unregulated, the more it will be exploited by sanctioned actors, terrorist organizations, corrupt officials, and foreign adversaries.
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| UK Illicit Finance Summit Puts Dirty Gold in the Spotlight. Real Reforms Must Follow.
A new blog from FACT program director for environmental crime and illicit finance Julia Yansura and Spotlight on Corruption deputy director Helen Taylor outlines key opportunities to address dirty gold within the illicit finance agenda ahead of the 2026 UK Summit on Illicit Finance. Critically, Yansura and Taylor call for the UK government to consider aspects of the gold trade – one of the three core themes of the upcoming Summit – that have impacts beyond those visible in the UK domestically.
From the blog: “London plays a central role in the global gold trade, being home to the largest over-the-counter gold bullion market and the headquarters of both the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the World Gold Council. This means that the UK is well placed to provide global leadership on issues of illicit gold flows.”
Read FACT’s reaction to the announcement of the UK Illicit Finance Summit, as well as the UK government’s long-awaited new anti-corruption strategy, here. |
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FACT Urges Veto of Puerto Rican Senate Bill 63
On December 9, FACT sent a letter to the Governor of Puerto Rico urging a veto of Senate Bill 63 (SB 63). SB 63 significantly weakens Puerto Rico’s access-to-information framework, undermining the transparency needed to detect financial misconduct, monitor public spending, and ensure responsible stewardship of taxpayer and federal recovery funds. FACT’s concerns with SB 63 echo those raised by Puerto Rican civil society organizations, journalists, and international transparency experts. From the letter: “These measures would not bring Puerto Rico in line with international best practices; they would move the island further away from the transparency standards that underpin sound governance, investor confidence, and effective safeguards against illicit finance.” |
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| Thomson Reuters: 11th Circuit Upholds Corporate Transparency Act
FACT policy director Zorka Milin was quoted by Thomson Reuters in their coverage of the 11th Circuit Court’s decision upholding the CTA.
This decision “doesn’t directly change the Treasury’s rule implementing the CTA… but it does resoundingly validate the CTA as originally enacted by Congress,” said Milin. The Treasury should “take into account Congressional intent and reverse its unlawful and unconstitutional IFR from March.” |
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| Bloomberg Tax: Big Business Doesn’t Deserve a Pass on the Corporate Minimum Tax Bloomberg Tax published an op-ed from FACT’s Zorka Milin warning against the administration’s recent efforts to exempt large companies from the corporate alternative minimum tax.
From the op-ed: “The corporate alternative minimum tax, or CAMT, is at risk of stealth repeal as business interests lobby for “relief” from the Treasury Department—unlegislated, unaccounted for, and likely unconstitutional tax cuts. Treasury shouldn’t take the bait.” |
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| Stars and Stripes: The Pentagon’s push to court private equity poses profound national security risks In his latest op-ed, FACT executive director Ian Gary argues that the Pentagon’s interest in recruiting private equity firms as investment partners raises serious national security concerns, given the absence of effective anti-money laundering safeguards for the sector.
From the op-ed: “The Treasury Department should not stall safeguards that would make it harder for our adversaries to evade sanctions and spy on our nation’s defense technology. Delaying these rules will put Americans and our national security at risk.” |
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From Our Members and Allies |
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| Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: 10 Reasons Why the U.S. Should Reform Its Corporate Income Tax
A new brief from FACT member ITEP argues that, while wealth taxes and other popular policy initiatives may face unique legal and political challenges, effective corporate taxation achieves many of the same objectives. From the brief: “When corporations are allowed to pay less in taxes, the ultimate beneficiaries are mainly the owners of corporate stocks, who are concentrated among the wealthiest households…This worsens income inequality within the U.S.” |
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Human Rights Watch: A Fairer Tax System is a Global Human Rights Imperative
A new opinion piece by Human Rights Watch’s Sarah Saadoun makes the case that the ongoing UN Tax Convention negotiations represent a generational opportunity to fix century-old deficiencies in the international tax framework.
From Saadoun: “Rules for cross-border taxation set out in the 1920s and fine-tuned by the OECD form the basis of thousands of bilateral tax agreements between countries. Companies and individuals exploit their loopholes with ease, often contributing little or nothing in taxes even as they amass fortunes larger than many governments’ budgets.” |
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Recent and Upcoming Events |
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| January 8: DC Bar Tax Conference
As part of a major event for tax professionals in DC, Zorka Milin spoke on a panel discussing the newly enacted federal remittance tax, titled “Wire We Doing This? Understanding the New Remittance Tax on Cash Transfers Abroad.” In her comments, she drew on the work of FACT member Alianza Americas to highlight concerns about the adverse impact of the new tax on Latino families and communities, as well as on Latin American countries. She also drew attention to the illicit finance risks of driving remittances into informal channels, which were not intended or considered by Congress. As a result of the new tax, billions in remittances could shift into unsafe and unregulated channels, as explained in a FACT blog by Julia Yansura and Zorka Milin.
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January 20: Conservation X Labs- Gold Reimagined 2026
Julia Yansura will speak at Gold Reimagined 2026, a virtual panel event on lessons learned and opportunities for reform in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector, alongside Luis Fernandez from the Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA) and Maria Franco Chuaire from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Yansura will highlight opportunities to address the challenges posed by illicit finance and dirty gold, and emphasize the importance of 2026 as the year of collective action.
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| January 29: TEFOS El Bosque es Futuro Sixth International Forum
Yansura will speak at the Sixth International Forum of TEFOS El Bosque es Futuro in Bogota. The initiative is a collaboration between the UK government and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime that aims to stabilize and reduce the rate of deforestation in the main hotspots of conflict-affected areas in Colombia, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation. Yansura will speak on a panel focusing on money laundering and environmental crimes. |
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February 2-3 and 5-13: Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation
In February, the Fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee Session of the United Nations Tax Convention will be held in New York City. Representatives from international organizations, civil society, and other stakeholders will convene to work toward a framework convention for improving global tax cooperation and administration. FACT executive director Ian Gary will be attending to coordinate with allies calling for increased global tax transparency in the form of public country-by-country reporting, which can improve tax administration and increase tax revenues for all countries, and particularly developing economies.
Ian Gary will also be attending the ECOSOC Special Meeting on Financial Integrity on February 4, which will put a special focus on information exchange and other commitments adopted at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) last summer. |
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February 3-4: From Secrecy to Transparency: The End of Hidden Wealth?
Zorka Milin will speak on a policy panel as part of a two-day conference hosted by the EU Tax Observatory in Paris, bringing together academic researchers and policy practitioners from around the world. Her comments will focus on recent US transparency developments, in particular on beneficial ownership, as well as trends in US tax enforcement. |
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About the FACT Coalition
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition is a non-partisan coalition of more than 100 state, national, and international organizations working toward a fair and honest tax system that addresses the challenges of a global economy and promotes policies to combat the harmful impacts of corrupt financial practices.
For more information, visit www.thefactcoalition.org
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