{"id":29611,"date":"2015-07-08T15:27:43","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T14:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=29611"},"modified":"2015-07-08T15:28:17","modified_gmt":"2015-07-08T14:28:17","slug":"the-eu-parliament-votes-for-public-country-by-country-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2015\/07\/08\/the-eu-parliament-votes-for-public-country-by-country-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU Parliament votes for public country-by-country reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"

This press release wasa put out by several NGOs campaigning for country-by-country reporting an hour or so ago:<\/em><\/p>\n

Today, the European Parliament voted in favour of a measure to increase shareholders\u2019 rights that includes a requirement for multinational corporations (MNCs) to publicly report financial information on a country-by-country basis.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cToday\u2019s vote in Parliament shows that MEPs throughout Europe are serious about transparency\u2019s role in the health of our economies,\u201d said Koen Roovers, Lead EU Advocate for the Financial Transparency Coalition. \u201cHowever, this is the first step in the process, and it\u2019s now time for the European Commission (EC) and individual member states to show they place the same value on transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the wake of the LuxLeaks scandal, which exposed hundreds of MNCs that had signed secret tax deals with the government of Luxembourg, there has been a renewed public focus on corporate transparency and tax dodging. The vote supports making these tax deals public and, crucially, also calls for MNCs to publicly report financial information on a country-by-country basis.<\/p>\n

This would require MNCs to disclose things like the amount of profit made, taxes paid, revenue generated and number of employees for each country where a subsidiary operates. Right now, MNCs report on their operations in one consolidated global report, without any way of discerning country-specific operations. The OECD is currently recommending its members to adopt country-by-country reporting (CBCR) but, after massive pressure from MNCs, fell short of recommending that it be made public.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBoth the OECD and the Commission have claimed that governments can be transparent without sharing any information with the public, as long as the tax administrations from those countries exchange information,\u201d said Markus Meinzer, Senior Analyst for Tax Justice Network. \u201cThe Parliament has today shown what real transparency looks like by stressing the need for public information. This is not only the most effective solution to promote corporate accountability in Europe, it is also the only sensible decision if we are serious about helping developing countries who lose billions through tax dodging and would otherwise not be able to access this information.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The EP vote comes as the European Commission begins an assessment of whether to increase public access to information such as CBCR and tax deals.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Commission should take note of the strong message coming from the European citizen\u2019s elected representatives: The public should be allowed to know where multinational corporations do business, what they pay in taxes and whether they have received any so-called \u2018sweetheart deals\u2019 from governments to help them dodge taxes,\u201d said Eurodad\u2019s Tove Maria Ryding, Policy and Advocacy Manager on Tax Justice. \u201cSettling for anything less will be a scandal not least in a year where whistleblowers and journalists are facing trials in Luxembourg for\u00a0publically\u00a0exposing basic\u00a0information about what multinational corporations pay in taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Campaigners stress that the positive effects of CBCR go far beyond shedding light on the tax payments of companies.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis vote shows widespread support for opening up the black box of multinational corporations\u2019 finances,\u201d\u00a0said Carl Dolan, Director of Transparency International EU. \u201cAll eyes are now on the Luxembourg Presidency to make sure this basic measure of corporate transparency becomes law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From a market perspective, investors should also be interested in the information.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cInvestors need the very same knowledge; knowing if a corporation is operating in unstable areas, using tax havens, or engaging in the type of aggressive tax planning that can ruin a reputation are vital to making sound business investments, \u201d added Mr. Roovers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This press release wasa put out by several NGOs campaigning for country-by-country reporting an hour or so ago: Today, the European Parliament voted in favour
Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-country-by-country","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}