A half-century of resistance to corporate disclosure

Abstract

As the complexity of transnational corporations (TNCs) grew in the post-war period, their effective degree of disclosure diverged from what is standardly expected of single-country firms. Country-by-country reporting is the key proposal to reestablish appropriate TNC disclosure, and ultimately TNC accountability -and as such, has been consistently resisted by many TNCs, professional services firms and some key headquarters countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. This paper charts two main waves of pressure for progress. The first, most visible from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, reflects the claims of the New International Economic Order and the rise of the G77 group of countries, while the second saw international civil society take a leading role. The current phase sees these two impulses combine and may finally deliver meaningful progress. The paper addresses both the political underpinnings and the developing technical component to the claims for deeper TNC disclosure, ultimately shaped into the pursuit of an international standard for public, country-by-country reporting -and the resistance to it. The paper also provides illustrative results based on the existing country-by-country reporting data for banks. It concludes with a discussion of the prospects for country-by-country reporting.

Global inequalities in taxing rights: An early evaluation of the OECD tax reform proposals

“…None of these sources, however, provide the level of public transparency for multinationals, consistently across each jurisdiction of operation, that would be expected for a standalone domestic business that files its accounts publicly. The long battle for this type of country-by-country reporting by multinationals (detailed in Cobham, Janský & Meinzer, 2018), entered a new phase in 2013, when the G20 group of countries gave the OECD a mandate to develop a reporting standard. This standard, based on the original Tax Justice Network proposal (Murphy, 2003), was agreed and implemented as part of the BEPS process in 2015.…”

Country-by-Country Reporting and Other Financial Transparency Measures Affecting the European Union

“…Thus, confidential CbCR strives to help tax administrations to assess transfer pricing risks. Prior to the OECD BEPS Action Plan, CbCR has been under discussion for over 30 years as a public financial reporting standard (Cobham, Janský, and Meinzer 2018). Public CbCR has been introduced in the European banking sector in 2013 and has been shown to significantly curb profit shifting by banks with tax haven operations (Overesch and Wolff 2019).…”

Giants: The Global Power Elite

“…Moreover, an international patchwork of disclosure laws makes it an almost impossibility to have a full grasp of how elite members and their networks secretly intersect on a global scale. 15 In this way, I would go as far to say Giants is fundamentally an anti-secrecy endeavor; it is a casebook for potential FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, anti-corruption research, and to map invisible networks. As a reference work, Giants belongs on the shelf of public and academic libraries as well as with those researchers concerned with unlocking the secrets of the global power network of elites to create a more transparent, just world.…”