About Us

Who We Are

The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition is a non-partisan alliance of more than 100 state, national, and international organizations working toward a fair tax system that addresses the challenges of a global economy and promoting policies to combat the harmful impacts of corrupt financial practices.

Founded in 2011 under the leadership of Nicole Tichon, who served as the coalition’s original executive director, FACT quickly grew to include a large and diverse membership. During the first gathering at the Pocantico Retreat Center in New York, the groups established the following goals.

Our Goals

  • End the use of anonymous shell companies as vehicles for illicit activity;
  • Strengthen, standardize, and enforce anti-money laundering laws;
  • Require greater transparency from multinational corporations to promote informed tax policy;
  • Ensure that the U.S. constructively engages in global financial transparency initiatives; and
  • Eliminate loopholes that allow corporations and individuals to offshore income and avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Mission Statement

Working toward a fair tax system that addresses the challenges of a global economy and promoting policies to combat the harmful impacts of corrupt financial practices.

Why It Matters

There is untold wealth hidden in secrecy jurisdictions around the globe.  The wealth-stripping from corrupt practices and regimes, illegal activity, and legal-but-ethically-bankrupt tax avoidance schemes is larger than most can possibly imagine. Because of the secret nature of the financial flows, it is impossible to know precisely the amount of money, but economist Gabriel Zucman estimates at least $7.6 trillion is in tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions.  The Boston Consulting Group estimates $11 trillion. And the Tax Justice Network estimates between $21 and $32 trillion dollars.

Until the passage of the tax overhaul in 2017, the 500 largest U.S. companies had $2.6 trillion stashed offshore, costing American taxpayers over $750 billion in unpaid taxes.  Indeed, the annual cost of offshore tax avoidance by multinational companies, pre-tax law, was estimated to be $94 billion to $135 billion; the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the tax overhaul will increase the revenue loss to offshore tax avoidance by an additional $14 billion over the next decade.  At the same time, overseas tax evasion by individuals drains an additional $35 billion to $70 billion each year from the American public.

We seek a larger conversation about how specifically certain interests are manipulating the tax system and undermining our ability to act collectively to solve problems.  The secrecy, in particular, allows certain entities to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us.  Internationally, the secrecy facilitates corruption and impoverishes developing countries.  In the U.S., we are complicit in the draining of wealth of other nations and fueling the austerity movement in our own.