MEPs questioned 11 multinational companies on their corporate tax practices in a five-hour debate with the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Tax Rulings on Monday. Of the 13 companies originally invited, only Fiat Chrysler and Walmart declined the final invitation. Google was asked about its Bermuda subsidiary, and Facebook was asked why it stored its intellectual property rights on the Cayman Islands. The committee also quizzed the multinationals on transfer pricing practices and the OECD’s BEPS proposals. It found they were more receptive to the idea of a common consolidated corporate tax base than they were towards mandatory country by country reporting.
Meanwhile, charities ActionAid, Christian Aid and Oxfam produced a report, Getting To good– towards responsible corporate tax behaviour (www.bit.ly/1l24m8d), advising multinationals on steps they could take to ensure ‘responsible tax practices’, including practices over transfer pricing, use of tax incentives and lobbying. The economist Joseph Stiglitz and others on the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation sent a letter to the G20 leaders at the 15–16 November summit in Antalya, Turkey, arguing there was a need to go much further than the OECD’s BEPS project in reforming international taxation.
MEPs questioned 11 multinational companies on their corporate tax practices in a five-hour debate with the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Tax Rulings on Monday. Of the 13 companies originally invited, only Fiat Chrysler and Walmart declined the final invitation. Google was asked about its Bermuda subsidiary, and Facebook was asked why it stored its intellectual property rights on the Cayman Islands. The committee also quizzed the multinationals on transfer pricing practices and the OECD’s BEPS proposals. It found they were more receptive to the idea of a common consolidated corporate tax base than they were towards mandatory country by country reporting.
Meanwhile, charities ActionAid, Christian Aid and Oxfam produced a report, Getting To good– towards responsible corporate tax behaviour (www.bit.ly/1l24m8d), advising multinationals on steps they could take to ensure ‘responsible tax practices’, including practices over transfer pricing, use of tax incentives and lobbying. The economist Joseph Stiglitz and others on the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation sent a letter to the G20 leaders at the 15–16 November summit in Antalya, Turkey, arguing there was a need to go much further than the OECD’s BEPS project in reforming international taxation.
