It was last autumn as the scandal exploded. Over 340 major companies, including Ikea, was revealed to have participated in massive tax evasion by advanced company structures mainly Luxembourg – and this with the assistance of the Luxembourg authorities. The whole thing was revealed by journalist network ICIJ published 28,000 pages of leaked documents from the Luxembourg tax offices.
The scandal, which quickly got the name “Luxleaks” became a personal scandal EU Commission Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, who was Prime Minister of Luxembourg during the period of the advanced tax lay-ups. But it also resulted immediately in the clamor for tougher requirements on reporting by companies about where and how much they pay in taxes for a number of Union members.
And now begins tax planning critics have hearing for their demands. Last week, a decision by a committee of the European Parliament which could have major repercussions in terms of big business future tax planning. If the Committee, working with legal issues, get to that, all EU companies will be forced to introduce so-called country-by-country reporting – that tell us where they pay how much in taxes. Today, the information in most cases secret.
– Until now we have had to rely on us in the whistle-blowers and the secret documents to expose multinational companies engaged in aggressive tax planning and movements of profits . But today’s decision takes the transparency that Europe needs a step closer to reality, said committee chairman Koen Roovers in a statement following the decision last week.
Among the companies that was caught with extensive tax planning in Luxleaks were several Swedish giants. Besides Ikea also appeared SEB, Tele2 and the Wallenberg sphere venture capital company EQT among those who revealed having used the aggressive so-called Luxembourg-lay-ups.
And in the current situation there are very few Swedish companies that openly declare where they pay tax. In today are often reported tax as a post office and few Swedish companies show how tax payments are divided, says Matthew Smith, director of sustainable asset management and team for the sustainability analysis of SPP, Storebrand.
– Businesses are not as good as we would wish on tax. It is a question that we as investors often take up with the business when we hit them, he says to SvD Business.
One of the few Swedish companies are at the forefront when it comes so-called country-by-country reporting is the development financier Swedfund. But even companies that Lundin Petroleum and Stora Enso is considered to be in the forefront in this area – something unexpected might, given the criticism that these companies have faced in sustainability issues. Lundin Petroleum has been criticized for alleged human rights violations and Stora Enso unveiled last year by child labor in its supply chain.
International lifted Shell emerged as a pioneer of country-specific reporting – a company that often receive criticism in the environmental context, now the latest in conjunction with the US approval of their plans for new exploratory drilling for oil in the Arctic.
Tele2, which was , one of the companies named in Luxleaks, has published a summary of its tax policy on its website. Where the company writes that it pay a fair tax.
– We have previously reported for each country, but it is not comparable if not all reports the same. For example, it is different if one includes human treasures or not and you are then a staff-intensive company, it looks like one pays a lot of taxes, says Tele 2′s sustainability director Marie Baumgarts to SvD Business continues:
– We think it should be mandatory that all reports the same thing.
What do you mean by fair taxes?
– The fair tax mean We, for example, that we should pay taxes based on earnings in the countries where we operate, we should not have complex corporate structures and that we should not be aggressive or unethical in the way we manage the tax.
Already in June is expected to European Commission decide on how the future demands for transparency regarding companies’ tax payments can be designed. At the same time parallel processes in both the Parliament and the Council of Ministers.
No comments:
Post a Comment