Diverse Stakeholders Flood OECD in Push for Public Corporate Tax Disclosures

A diverse set of stakeholders has called on the Organizations for Economic Cooperation and Development to mandate public disclosures of key tax information for multinational corporations. Originally agreed to in 2015, the OECD is reviewing its standard on country-by-country reporting of tax information. The deadline for filing public comments was Friday, March 6^th.

The submissions included a letter from 13 U.S. senators and 20 U.S. representatives, a letter from 4 national U.S. small business trade associations, a letter from dozens of investors with $850 billion in assets under management, and a letter from three dozen non-governmental organizations, which was led by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition. Each of these letters called on the OECD to:

1. align its framework with the new Tax Standard from the Global Reporting Initiative,
2. lower the revenue threshold from $850 million to cover more multinational corporations, and
3. mandate public disclosure of the information.

Clark Gascoigne, interim executive director of the FACT Coalition, issued the following statement:

"We are pleased to see such widespread support for increased tax transparency, and we hope that the members of the OECD's Inclusive Framework will listen to the emerging consensus around public disclosure. The OECD took a step in the right direction in 2015 by agreeing to country-by-country reporting, albeit on a private basis. It's now time to fulfill this agreement's true potential by aligning it with the consensus framework negotiated by the Global Reporting Initiative and mandating the information be made available to investors, academics, policymakers, and developing nations through public dissemination. In codifying the emerging trend toward transparency, the OECD can help expose abusive tax-dodging schemes -- better protecting taxpayers, informing policymakers, and safeguarding investors."