The law treats business differently, depending on their size and location. Our standards reflect this.
We have developed three standards (with associated guidance notes) to ascertain and encourage responsible tax conduct:
To obtain Fair Tax Mark accreditation, businesses are assessed against the criteria set out in the standard most appropriate for them.
There are many reasons to secure the Fair Tax Mark, from standing out in your sector and increasing customer confidence, to reassuring investors and boosting your brand via enhanced CSR and ESG credentials.
Our Fair Tax certification standards are based on the following principles.
A business should:
We have two standards for UK-only businesses:
Click on the guidance notes for details of the assessment criteria for your business. After you reach out to us, we will assess your business against these and tell you exactly what you’ll need to do (if anything) in order to secure the Fair Tax Mark. We’ll explain what you’re excelling at, and how to improve. Once the necessary thresholds have been met, you’ll be part of the fair tax community!
No matter where in the world your multinational enterprise is based, our Global Multinational Business Standard allows us to award you the Fair Tax Mark. The criteria against which we assess global multinationals focuses on five key areas: beneficial ownership, governance, tax policy, financial and tax reporting, and cash taxes paid.
The Fair Tax Mark Global Multinational Business Standard satisfies the key reporting recommendations of GRI 207, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct, but carries with it the additional weight of independent third-party verification undertaken by a trusted social enterprise.
Certification will also go a long way to demonstrate alignment to the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and associated Minimum Safeguards, which flag ‘taxation’ as a material consideration.
Put simply, to secure a Fair Tax Mark, a business should demonstrate a substantive commitment to responsible corporate tax conduct, financial transparency, public Country-by-Country Reporting (if a multinational) and beneficial ownership disclosure. There must be a binding corporate tax policy that explicitly shuns tax avoidance and the artificial use of tax havens, and no recent evidence of contradicting activities. Subsidiaries and related party transactions should be disclosed.
The scoring system underpinning the Fair Tax Mark standards is predominantly driven by the belief that ‘tax transparency’ encourages, and helps business demonstrate, responsible tax conduct. It also considers the tax contribution made by a business over a number of years. There are many good reasons why a business may not be paying high tax rates over a given period. For example, it may be loss-making in some years, or claiming legitimate tax reliefs within both the spirit and letter of the law. Such businesses can still secure a Fair Tax Mark by providing additional disclosures – especially in connection with shortfalls from the applicable headline rates of tax in operation.
The Fair Tax Mark standards and criteria have been developed with input from a broad range of stakeholders, including businesses, civil society organisations, tax experts and more.
A Technical Advisory Group, drawn from a range of backgrounds and perspectives, communicates throughout the year and meets on an ad hoc basis.
A public consultation process underpinned the development of our Global Multinational Business Standard.
While our standards and criteria detail the scoring system we use to assess and certify a business, we also provide a range of templates, papers and good practice examples. These include:
Our fees are largely influenced by business size and complexity. We regularly benchmark our fees against comparable certification schemes and strive to be as moderately priced as possible. Fees are subject to negotiation as required, and are agreed before a Letter of Engagement is issued.
Fair Tax Mark certification is an annual process, with assessment and re-certification progressing afresh each year based on the information detailed in your most recent set of Financial Statements.
Design and impact agency LEAP have been awarded the Fair Tax Mark. This means they operate at the highest level of business tax conduct. LEAP provide branding and digital services, as well as strategy and consultancy. Their clients include Tilda, the UK Space Agency and Divine Chocolate. Sustainability and good business are at the centre of their ethos, meaning their …
In this series for the Fair Tax Foundation, our certified organisations tell us how the Fair Tax Mark has helped open opportunities or overcome challenges specific to their sector. Here, Abbas Shapuri, chartered accountant at Third Sector Accountancy, shares why the Fair Tax Mark is so important for a sector rooted in achieving social goals: social enterprises. For social enterprises, social and environmental …
We’re delighted to announce this year Fair Tax Week will take place 21-28 June. Tax Justice Sunday will be on the last Sunday, 28 June.
Fair Tax Week is an annual awareness-raising week celebrating the importance of businesses paying corporate income tax responsibly.
