Final Study on Illicit Financial Flows, Human Rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the Independent Expert on the Effects of Foreign Debt and Other Related International Financial Obligations of States on the Full Enjoyment of all Human Rights, Particularly Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Human Rights Council Illicit Wealth, Taxation, Trade Misinvoicing, The study focuses in more detail on tax-related illicit financial flows, in particular on tax evasion and avoidance by transnational corporations. It argues that tax abuse deprives governments of resources required to progressively realize human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights. In effect, tax abuse forces governments to raise revenue from other sources, including through regressive taxes, the burden of which ultimately falls hardest on the poor. This has important human rights implications because regressive tax structures limit the redistributive impact of social programmes which end up being funded by the very people they are supposed to benefit. In this study, the Independent Expert also discussed a large number of phenomena classified as illicit financial flows, including illegal tax evasion; tax avoidance by transnational corporations; bribery, corruption and concomitant asset recovery; and other criminal activities. While those activities negatively affect human rights in a number of ways, it has been estimated that the majority of all illicit financial flows are related to cross-border tax-related transactions. Curbing tax-related illicit financial flows thus has the potential to make the largest fiscal impact and would enlarge domestic resources available for the realization of human rights, including social, economic and cultural rights. New York City United Nations 2016 2016 Text 28p. iffoadatabase.trustafrica.org/iff/A.HRC.31.61_EN.pdf