Public country by country reporting : the solution towards greater tax transparency

Abstract

The focus of this term paper is to provide a detailed insight on the effectiveness of public disclosure of large corporate income tax information as means to detract tax avoidance and enhance tax transparency. At present, major importance is being attributed to the fragmentation of the legislative framework, which is enabling entities to significantly reduce or nullify their tax liabilities and not paying their fair share of taxes. The researcher seeks to examine the proposed Directive of the European Commission on public country by country reporting, as a tool to address the current top-of the agenda issue. This is done by outlining the benefits and drawbacks of this regime, evaluating certain main elements of the proposal and look into the standpoint of a number of Member States of the EU and the public in general. Given that this regime is relatively new, especially within the European Community literature and research on this topic is limited. The researcher in this study makes reference to the already existing country by country reporting, implemented both by the OECD and the EU as public country by country reporting is the step ahead of the mentioned mandates.