Billion Dollar Tax Cheats Require a Healthy Dose of Sunlight

International tax avoidance by large multinational corporations siphons nearly $250 billion dollars a year out of public treasuries globally (over $100 billion in the US), seriously undermining government obligations to serve their citizens consistently with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. I’m not proud of my past role as an enabler of that behavior, even though tax avoidance, in contrast to criminal tax evasion, is perfectly legal.

Loophole creation and exploitation—the work of tax avoiders and their enablers—is done in the dark. Sunlight is anathema to those who feel it prudent to work in the dark; transparency is ...