The next round of tax transparency – preparing for greater scrutiny
Trends in voluntary reporting
The implementation of a number of new tax reporting regimes continues apace. Public country-by-country reporting (CbCR), coming into effect in most of the European Union (EU) from June 2024, is high on the agenda of many tax departments. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting frameworks also continue to evolve. The implementation of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) took a step forward with the adoption of the first European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) by the European Commission in June 2023.
Now that we’re a year closer to those reporting deadlines, and have another year of data, what have we learnt? In short, the amount of complexity associated with the new reporting requirements is becoming ever more apparent and in general businesses are not introducing new disclosures sooner than they have to. Given the challenges of the new reporting regimes, however, we would encourage businesses to start preparing well in advance of any new reporting deadlines.
Shaping the tax transparency debate
A review of the tax disclosures in the FTSE100 reveals an increase in tax transparency over the last 8 years, with some leaders dedicating time and energy to developing voluntary disclosures to inform the debate on tax transparency and improve understanding.
Read more below.
Public Country-by-Country Reporting
Country-by-country reporting (CbCR) was devised by the OECD back in 2016 as a high-level risk assessment tool to be privately used by tax administrations.
The EU reached consensus on public CbCR at the end of 2021. Individual States are currently implementing the proposals into domestic legislation with multinational corporations (MNCs) in scope required to publish information for financial years beginning on or after 22 June 2024.
Read our 10-step plan for more information on how to prepare for the publication of your CbCR data.
Global Reporting Initiative - 207 Tax Standard
The GRI is widely considered to be a global standard for sustainability reporting. The 207 Tax Standard was introduced in 2019 following heightened stakeholder interest in the tax affairs of MNCs, and represents the wider integration of tax within broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics.
It was announced in March 2022 that the GRI and the new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) would harmonise their standard-setting activities, effectively establishing a global baseline for ESG reporting.
In this rapidly developing transparency landscape, what percentage of companies in the FTSE100 are aligning themselves to the GRI?
Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures
The Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) became applicable to premium listed companies from 1 January 2021, with this extending to incorporate certain private companies from 6 April 2022.
The TCFD framework is above all about disclosing the financial impacts of climate change. Within the broader policy perspectives of environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics, climate change is not only a long-term issue affecting companies, but one that needs consideration today.
But why is tax an important element to TCFD? And in what ways should Tax be considered in the preparation of this disclosure? Download our TCFD to find out.
World Economic Forum Metrics
As demand from stakeholders for high quality, transparent and comparable corporate reporting has grown over recent years, the World Economic Forum (WEF) issued its Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics in September 2020 in response. Tax is included in the form of the taxes borne element of Total Tax Contribution Methodology.
Could aligning with the WEF tax metric be a starting point for a broader transparency journey for your business? Download our WEF publication to find out more.
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