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The business case for tax planning - as a corporate responsibility issue
Published: 05/09/2011 by Federica
» B2B
Taxes. We all have to pay them. Including the biggest companies in the world. However, with growing public interest in aggressive corporate tax policies and their effects on developing countries, serious questions have been raised about how big business has been handling its own tax.
In July of this year, ActionAid released a report in response to these questions titled 'Tax Responsibility'. The report was written with the support of fellow NGOs, Fairfood International and FairPensions.
These organisations stress how important tax is for developing countries. It often funds the most basic building blocks for a country's economic growth. A company's tax policy can have a major effect, good or bad, on the country in which it does business.
'Tax Responsibility' makes a strong case for businesses and investors to implement an effective corporate responsibility response to tax planning. In the report, companies are provided with the practical steps they can take to prevent tax avoidance; which many companies are already implementing. The report lays out the risks related to aggressive tax planning and the opportunities for businesses that incorporate tax in their corporate responsibility agendas.
In the coming weeks, a series on the report will be featured here, on My Green Directory. We will be breaking the paper down bit by bit to discuss topics, such as, the risks of aggressive tax planning and explore why it's often a 'forgotten' issue in the field of sustainability. You'll find everything from the business case for tax planning to its growth as a CSR issue.
In the next edition, we will explain how tax is a development issue, one that can alter the very foundation of a developing country. Next installment is on 19 September, here on My Green Directory.
This is the first entry in a series on the report, 'Tax Responsibility'. You can read the full report here: Tax Responsibility: The business case for making tax a corporate responsibility issue
By Abigail Joffre from Fairfood International; a global movement of people passionate about facilitating change towards a sustainable food and beverage industry.
