{"id":57150,"date":"2021-05-27T10:54:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T09:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=57150"},"modified":"2021-05-27T10:54:57","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T09:54:57","slug":"eu-civil-society-organisations-and-trade-unions-call-for-urgent-corporate-tax-transparency-plan-rethink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2021\/05\/27\/eu-civil-society-organisations-and-trade-unions-call-for-urgent-corporate-tax-transparency-plan-rethink\/","title":{"rendered":"EU civil society organisations and trade unions call for urgent corporate tax transparency plan rethink"},"content":{"rendered":"

Transparency International published this post today<\/a>, and I cross-post from there as a signatory referred to in it:<\/p>\n

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Sixty-two civil society organisations and trade unions today sounded the alarm over plans to significantly water down EU legislation that would force multinational companies to disclose, on a global, country-by-country basis, where they pay their taxes (so-called public country-by-country reporting or CBCR).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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EU Member States recently brokered a\u00a0breakthrough<\/a>\u00a0on the issue following years of deadlock, but the draft directive being negotiated with the European Parliament contains serious shortcomings that would render the plan meaningless.<\/p>\n

This contrasts with current developments on tax transparency in the USA, and signals that the EU has gone from a global leader to a global laggard, seriously undermining public and global confidence in the EU\u2019s ambition and credibility on these issues. The U.S. Congress\u00a0recently introduced legislation<\/a>\u00a0that would require full, public, and global country-by-country reporting. This legislation is advancing in the House and Senate. If the U.S. legislation becomes law, the EU, under the Council position, would be behind the U.S.<\/p>\n

The draft currently being considered by negotiators from the EU institutions would require multinational companies to disclose their tax payments, but only those made in the EU and in countries on the EU tax havens list \u2014 a political list that does not include significant tax havens. Payments in large swathes of the world would be exempt from the new rules.<\/p>\n

This means that citizens would remain largely in the dark on the aggressive tax planning strategies of many large companies. The data from the reporting would be ineffective to analyse potential tax avoidance schemes. It likely would also have the perverse effect of companies deciding to move parts of their tax planning outside the EU to avoid the disclosure requirement.<\/p>\n

As the world seeks to recover from the social and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight against tax avoidance will play a critical role in ensuring an effective and sustainable recovery that enjoys public confidence.<\/p>\n

Genuine public CBCR, that covers all of multinationals\u2019 global operations, is an essential tool in achieving this. Experience with the banking sector, which has been subject to public country-by-country reporting since 2015, shows public CBCR to be both proportionate and effective.<\/p>\n

The undersigned organisations cannot support the half-hearted text currently on the table. We call on Member States and on the Portuguese Presidency of the Council to reach an ambitious agreement with the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

The EU legislation should include a requirement for worldwide reporting by large companies and close existing loopholes. EU citizens deserve nothing less.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0setting out our concerns in more detail has been sent to EU Member States.<\/p>\n

11.11.11
\nActionAid Denmark
\nActionAid Ireland
\nActionAid Netherlands
\nAttac
\nAttac Austria
\nAttac Li\u00c3\u00a8ge
\nAttac Spain
\nAttac Wallonie Bruxelles
\nAustria Chamber of Labour
\nAustrian Trade Union Confederation (\u00c3\u2013GB)
\nBoth ENDS
\nCCFD Terre Solidaire
\nCentral Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK)
\nChurch Action for Tax Justice
\nCoalition for Research and Action for Social Justice and Human Dignity (CRASH)
\nComisiones Obreras
\nConfederation of Christian Trade Unions of Belgium
\nConfederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro
\nDemokrati i Europa Oplysningsforbundet
\nDiakonia Sweden
\nEkvilib Institute
\nEuropean Attac Network
\nEuropean Public Service Union
\nEuropean Trade Union Confederation
\nFair Tax Finland
\nFinancial Transparency Coalition
\nFinnish Association for Nature Conservation
\nFinnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK)
\nFinnish Development NGOs \u2014 Fingo
\nFinnish League for Human Rights
\nFinnwatch
\nFrench Democratic Confederation of Labour Union of Public Employees (FOA)
\nFocus
\nKIOS Foundation
\nKoordinierungsstelle der \u00c3\u2013sterreichischen Bischofskonferenzf\u00c3\u00bcr internationale Entwicklung und Mission (KOO)
\nNetzwerk Steuergerechtigkeit
\nNyt Europa
\nOpen State Foundation
\nOxfam IBIS
\nOxfam Italia
\nOxfam
\nPlateforme Paradis Fiscaux et Judiciaires
\nPro Ethical Trade Finland
\nPublic Services International
\nR\u00c3\u00a9seau Foi et Justice Afrique-Europe
\nSherpa
\nTax Justice Network
\nTax Research UK
\nTransparency International EU
\nTransparency International France
\nTransparency International Germany
\nTransparency International Italy
\nTransparency International Netherlands
\nTransparency International Spain
\nTransparency International Portugal
\nUILPA
\nUni\u00c3\u00a3o Geral de Trabalhadores Portugal
\nUni\u00c3\u00b3n General de Trabajadores Espa\u00c3\u00b1a
\nUni\u00c3\u00b3n Sindical Obrera
\nVienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transparency International published this post today, and I cross-post from there as a signatory referred to in it: Sixty-two civil society organisations and trade unions
 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":[67,26,79,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountancy","category-accounting","category-country-by-country","category-tax-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57150","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=57150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}