Strategizing International Tax Best Practices – by Keith Brockman

Posts tagged ‘public disclosure’

EU: Broader CbC public disclosures envisioned

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have put forth additional recommended disclosures and requirements for the Accounting Directive of public Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting, prior to enactment of the original proposal.

The Accounting Directive allows a simple majority for passage, and involves additional complexities and cost as the OECD model is now just a starting point for new information.

The Parliament would also like to extend the proposal to include the following information in company reports:

  • The geographical location of the activities
  • The number of employees employed on a full-time equivalent basis
  • The value of assets and annual cost of maintaining those assets
  • Sales and purchases
  • The value of investments broken down by tax jurisdiction
  • The amount of the net turnover, including a distinction between the turnover made with related parties and the turnover made with unrelated parties
  • Stated capital
  • Tangible assets other than cash or cash equivalents
  • Public subsidies received
  • The list of subsidiaries operating in each tax jurisdiction both inside and outside the EU and data for those subsidiaries corresponding to the data requirements on the parent undertaking
  • All payments made to governments on an annual basis as defined in the Directive, including production entitlements, income taxes, royalties and dividends
  • The report shall not only be published on the website of the company in at least one of the official languages of the EU, but the undertaking shall also file the report in a public registry managed by the Commission

EY’s Global Tax Alert, referenced herein, provides the relevant details, although it appears the CbC report is not being construed as one tool for total transfer pricing assessment, but a public tool to determine one’s fair share of tax irrespective of the legal laws and limitations in each country.  

An alternative approach would be to design a standard (transfer pricing) audit template for the tax authorities that would include some, or all, of the above factors to the extent deemed important to assess a company’s tax liability in that relevant jurisdiction.  However, this non-public and Best Practice audit tool is not the focus in this post-BEPS world, to date.  

Click to access 2017G_00761-171Gbl_EU%20Parliament%20members%20submit%20amendments%20to%20public%20CbCR%20proposal.pdf

Category:

Tax Risk Management, Transfer Pricing

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Transparency & Disclosure: zooming in

EY’s recent publication takes a close-up view of transparency and disclosure trends, including a detailed analysis of several countries’ latest trends.  A link to the report is provided for reference:

Click to access EY-are-you-ready-for-your-close-up.pdf

Key Points:

  • Transparency issues of the future:
    • Country-by-Country (CbC) implementation and inconsistency of approaches
    • New transfer pricing documentation requirements
    • Public access for CbC reports and tax rulings
    • Growing trend to disclose a company’s planning, strategy, risk appetites and effective tax rates
    • Tax codes of conduct, formal and informal
    • Increased disclosure of aggressive tax positions
    • Electronic data gathering
    • Use of third-party data
    • Direct ERP access
    • Matching of data and watching for transactional trends
  • EU transparency update, including proposed Directives
  • Country transparency updates: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, UK, US

The level of future transparency will continue to increase, with new and dissimilar demands by countries around the world.  This report unveils the global trends and issues, with comprehensive analyses of various transparency trends of major countries.  Accordingly, it is a publication that should be reviewed to better understand where the current trends are requiring future demands for transparency in a new world of international taxation.

Category:

Tax Risk Management

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