Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what mechanisms are in place to ensure that multinational enterprises publish full transparent breakdowns of their tax receipts.

The UK introduced legislation in Finance Bill 2015 in order to implement the G20-OECD model for Country-by-Country reporting. This will require multinational companies to provide information on the global allocation of income, economic activity and taxes, and will give tax authorities a clear picture of a multinational company’s global business, whilst ensuring the administrative costs for businesses are minimised.

The OECD model for Country-by-Country reporting to tax authorities is for high level risk assessment purposes and includes protections to ensure sensitive information remains confidential. Making the reporting information public would not enhance risk assessment and would likely increase resource implications on both business and tax authorities. The UK has however transposed the EU Capital Requirements Directive IV, which requires public reporting for the banking and capital markets industry.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on this issue and will evaluate the costs and benefits of different forms of Country-by-Country reporting, including the public disclosure of this information. The UK will be interested in understanding their findings.