Nothing as certain as death and taxes

The launch of a new paper discussing the need for tax planning by businesses

Posted on 11 July 2011, 17:03

‘Tax Responsibility’, a new paper, by ActionAid written in collaboration with FairPensions and one of our own researchers at Fairfood International, was released today at the Oxford Centre for Business Taxation’s annual conference.

The core message of the report is that businesses should incorporate tax issues into their corporate responsibility agenda. At the conference, Martin Hearson, tax policy advisor for ActionAid, warned that businesses face a serious risk of damaging their reputation by not incorporating tax planning into their corporate responsibility programmes.

Of course, there is a pay off
According to ActionAid tax avoidance is becoming as big an issue as sweatshops were in the past decade.  And following a line of recent tax avoidance headlines and protests, this timely report makes a strong case for businesses and investors to implement an effective CR, corporate responsibility, response to tax planning.

This paper points out areas of needed improvement and also suggests an action plan on how businesses can incorporate sustainable corporate tax practices. Thus providing businesses with an interesting opportunity to take a stand and demonstrate a commitment to corporate responsibility.

Putting it to practice
As the goal of this report is to facilitate discussion between businesses, investors, tax campaigners, and other relative stakeholders, ActionAid and FairPensions plan to meet with investors and investment funds to discuss the findings of the ‘Tax Responsibility’ report in the coming months. This meeting will provide a platform where stakeholders, businesses, investors, tax professionals, and tax firms discuss their future plans and expected challenges.

We, at Fairfood, are hopeful for the future of tax issues in a greater view of sustainability and are proud to be apart of such a venture. In light of this paper, we are particularly interested to speak to SABMiller again. We look forward to hearing how SABMiller will address the issues in their supply chain, including tax responsibility.

You can read the full report here:
Tax Responsibility: The business case for making tax a corporate responsibility issue

 

Photography: Dominic’s pics (CC license)