Please note, the consultation has now ended. Our Global Multinational Business Standard was launched in November 2021.
Public consultation on the core requirements of future global standards
We have published ‘The Essential Elements of Global Corporate Standards for Responsible Tax Conduct’ – which tracks and analyses the many responsible tax initiatives that are now in play across the world, with a view to influencing and guiding the Fair Tax Mark’s consideration of a new suite of international standards that is now under development. These would enable the Fair Tax certification of businesses that have their ultimate holding company situated outside of the UK.
We invite comment on our analysis and conclusions. In particular, if we have omitted consideration of workstreams of which we were ignorant – especially outside of Europe. We have previously shared an earlier version of this Report with a range of civil society organisations, and incorporated feedback as warranted. We are now eager to receive a broader suite of feedback, not least from the business sector.
The ‘internationalisation’ of the Fair Tax mark is considered to be desirable given:
The focus of our analysis is corporate income tax, and related measures that are designed to tackle the avoidance of this (such as digital services taxes). Businesses are subjected to many different types of tax, but Corporation Tax has an importance way beyond the revenues it raises. As argued by the Tax Justice Network: “It holds the whole tax system together. It curbs political and economic inequalities and helps rebalance distorted economies.”
We are seeking feedback in two ways:
Responses can be provided openly or in confidence.
Webinar sessions were run to cover different geographic areas:
The research underpinning this report was kindly supported by a grant from Luminate.
The deadline for formal feedback was Wednesday 30th September 2020 though we’re always interested in comments and questions (via our usual contact email) on this project as it progresses.
You can read our report and proposals, and provide structured feedback by emailing us.
Research commissioned by the Fair Tax Foundation has found increased support among the UK public for responsible corporate tax conduct and for government measures which encourage this. There is substantial support for new corporate tax transparency measures being applied to everything from the smallest microenterprise to the largest multinational. Almost three-quarters (74%) believe that the UK should force multinational businesses …
The Fair Tax Foundation is delighted to announce a new partnership with the Good Business Charter (GBC), the UK’s number one benchmark for socially responsible business conduct. The GBC champions ethical conduct in ten areas, including a real living wage for employees, prompt payment to suppliers and environmental responsibility. They also encourage businesses to “pay fair tax”, and our partnership …
The Trump administration is threatening to cut off funding to the FASB, the US's accounting standard setter, unless it abandons a modest push for extra corporate tax transparency. Meanwhile, many US multinationals are quietly getting on with producing much more ambitious country-by-country reports, as mandated by the EU. Back in December 2023, after nearly a decade of to and fro, …
