Companies should know who really owns them... There are 13 "shoulds" in the Lough Erne Declaration which has come out of the G8 summit: Tax authorities across the world should automatically share information to fight the scourge of tax evasion. Countries should change rules that let companies shift their profits across borders to avoid taxes, and multinationals should report to tax authorities what tax they pay where. Companies should know who really owns them and tax collectors and law enforcers should be able to obtain this information easily. Developing countries should have the information and capacity to collect the taxes owed them - and other countries have a duty to help them. Extractive companies should report payments to all governments - and governments should publish income from such companies. Minerals should be sourced legitimately, not plundered from conflict zones. Land transactions should be transparent, respecting the property rights of local communities. Governments should roll back protectionism and agree new trade deals that boost jobs and growth worldwide. Governments should cut wasteful bureaucracy at borders and make it easier and quicker to move goods between developing countries. Governments should publish information on laws, budgets, spending, national statistics, elections and government contracts in a way that is easy to read and re-use, so that citizens can hold them to account. Point 10 there - talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations. Similar nostrums pop up in this "Action Plan" against "the misuse of companies and legal arrangements." Central registries of company ownership, something which the UK's diplomats were hoping to get broad agreement on, are only described as "could be achieved." The plan does promise public access to some "basic company information" but (inevitably) the whole thing is "subject to our different constitutional circumstances." And it's self-reported... Related link: The bankruptcy G8 - Faisal Islam