I am pleased to welcome you to the European Business Tax Forum’s (EBTF) fourth annual study of the Total Tax Contribution (TTC) of the largest multinational companies (MNCs) headquartered in the EU, EFTA and the UK.
With each year, since its inception in 2018, we have grown the number of participants contributing to this study, and the value and use of the data has grown accordingly. The EBTF is committed to providing data to the public tax debate with a view to increased knowledge leading to improved decision making. As we become more established in this area, the impact of our work should be felt ultimately through more educated dialogue around MNCs’ tax burden and better tax legislation.
It is a relatively safe bet that tax data will continue to grow in relevance as we see an expansion in both tax authority digitalisation as well as a significant increase in reporting standards, whether explicitly or implicitly, including tax data. Tax authorities see globally the provision of electronic tax data as an opportunity to automate and improve the tax enquiry process. As an example, in the EU, the approval of the amended Value Added Tax (VAT) directive in the second half of 2022 opened the way for EU Member States to introduce real time digital reporting and electronic invoicing by the end of 2023. On the reporting standards side, we see new Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards emerging, following the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) lead, which now cover tax, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and EU Public Country-by-Country Reporting (pCbCR). It is encouraging that tax directors recognise these trends and the importance of tax data in the debate and continue to actively contribute to our findings.
