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.
Background In 2021, the EU public Country-by-Country Reporting (pCbCR) Directive came into force. This requires large multinational companies that have a substantial presence in Europe to publicly share key financial information on their operations in each EU Member State and a designated list of tax havens.1 In the main, the Directive will lead to major new corporate tax disclosures in …
Fair Tax Leaders features senior professionals from across the Fair Tax Mark business community. In this special edition for Fair Tax Week, the Watches of Switzerland Group Head of Tax Becky Hurford shares her journey to a career in tax, why she's so glad the tax landscape has changed and how the Fair Tax Foundation helped her prepare public Country-by-Country Reporting. …
We are delighted to announce the appointment of three new non-executive directors to our board: Rebecca Hurford, Head of Tax at Watches of Switzerland; Penny Hogan, Chief Financial Officer at Unity Trust Bank plc; and Hannah Wickes, marketing advisor and former Chief Marketing Officer at Ecosia. These additions come at a pivotal moment, as we accelerate our international growth strategy …
