The directive imposing public country-by-country reporting (CBCR) should be strengthened, according to a report by the EU Tax Observatory published on Thursday 6 June (see EUROPE 12832/24).
The independent research laboratory acknowledges that the EU has taken an important step towards improving corporate tax transparency with this directive. However, the text has serious limitations, as the requirements are largely insufficient to truly assess the activity of multinationals. Broader adoption and a strengthening of corporate tax transparency initiatives are essential.
The Observatory has made a number of recommendations to improve the directive. It recommends, for example, removing the current geographical disaggregation provided for in the directive, which seems insufficient to fully understand the global footprint of multinationals. The requirement should be amended to allow full disclosure. It also suggests including additional variables such as information on wages, sales by destination and subsidies received by governments. It also recommends extending the scope of the directive to companies domiciled outside the EU and having an EU representation, regardless of their size.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/cli (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)