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.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Nine groups—the AFL-CIO; Americans for Financial Reform; the Center for American Progress; Ceres; the Financial Accountability & Corporate Transparency, or FACT, Coalition; the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable; Patriotic Millionaires; Public Citizen; and US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment—are joining together to urge the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, to strengthen corporate disclosure requirements.
September 20, 2016 | 9:30am ET – 11:00am ET
Please join the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the AFL-CIO, Americans for Financial Reform, Ceres, the Financial Accountability & Corporate Transparency Coalition, the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable, the Patriotic Millionaires, Public Citizen, and US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment for a discussion on transparency, long-termism, and the state of SEC corporate disclosures.
Shareholders Increasingly Stymied by Opaque Corporate Tax Practices as Authorities Crack Down, Finds New FACT Analysis
Apple Tax Ruling “Just the Tip of the Iceberg”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Investors are at an increasing risk due to the lack of information disclosed by companies about their tax practices, according to a new report published today by the FACT Coalition.
In 2015, Citigroup reported to the Security and Exchange Commission that it has 21 offshore subsidiary companies, but it reported to the Federal Reserve that it has 140. Similarly, Bank of America reported to the SEC that it has 21 subsidiaries while reporting to the Federal Reserve that it has 109. All told, 27 financial firms report wildly different numbers to the SEC v. Federal Reserve.
So what gives and which reporting is accurate? It turns out that SEC has less stringent reporting rules, requiring companies only to disclose “significant” subsidiaries. It defines significant as comprising 10 percent or more of the company’s assets. The Federal Reserve requires broader disclosure, but only for financial companies. A CTJ comparison of the disclosures revealed big banks and other financial firms collectively are under reporting to the SEC the number of subsidiary companies by a factor of more than seven.
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.
