Letter from Congress in Support of GRI Proposal to Disclose Tax and Payments to Governments
Members of Congress sent a letter in support of a proposal from the Global Reporting Initiative to require the disclosure of tax and payments to governments.
Briefing Memo: Publicly Traded Companies Should Publicly Report Where They Are Booking Profits and Paying Taxes
As governments around the world begin to crack down on aggressive offshore tax avoidance, numerous companies find themselves in the crosshairs of tax authorities. Alphabet (Google),3 Amazon,4 Apple,5 Caterpillar,6 Gap,7 Facebook,8 Hewlett-Packard,9 McDonalds,10 Microsoft,11 Shell,12 and Starbucks13 have all faced penalties or are in disputes with tax authorities over their aggressive tax avoidance practices.
The new tax law will do little to change the risk factors. While Congress eliminated deferral of taxes for profits booked offshore, the new 50% (or greater) discount on the overseas rate creates a powerful new incentive to move money overseas.14
For policymakers, investors, and other stakeholders to better understand how the tax laws operate in practice, there is a need for public country-by-country reporting (CbCR) of certain revenue, profit, tax, and other information for multinational corporations (MNCs).
Sixteen Members of the House of Representatives Sent a Letter Urging the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to Require Country by Country Tax Reporting
Sixteen members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), urging them to require multinational companies to be more transparent in reporting where they pay taxes and book profits. Specifically, they called on the accounting body to require that companies disclose their taxes and profits on a country-by-country basis.
FACT Urges SEC to Reconsider Proposed “Disclosure Update and Simplification” Rule
The FACT Coalition filed a comment on October 3, 2016 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cautioning the agency against proceeding with a rule to reduce disclosure to investors and urging the SEC to instead boost transparency through public country-by-country reporting.
Letter to FASB from FACT and 26 Other Groups Urging Country-by-Country Reporting
The FACT Coalition and a broad alliance of other organizations and coalitions submitted comments to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)—urging the body to require multinational companies to be more transparent about their tax practices.
FACT Comments to SEC on Concept Release Urge Public Country-by-Country Reporting
Public Disclosure of Country-by-Country Tax Information Would Better Inform Investors
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition submitted comments to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 urging that—to better inform investors—the SEC should revise its international tax disclosure framework to specifically require multinational corporations to disclose information on taxes and profits on an annual, country-by-country basis.