Comment letter to the European Commission on public Country-by-Country Reporting

We responded to the European Commission’s proposed introduction of a public Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR) requirement applicable to Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) into the Accounting Directive 2013/34/EU. The Federation is committed to inform the debate around public CBCR through the technical expertise of its constituents from across Europe.

In last year’s consultation on corporate tax transparency, the Federation supported the principle of public CbCR as part of an international initiative. Since then we have seen an increasing number of national developments in respect to CbCR, and believe that this makes the need to develop a truly international standard even more critical. All stakeholders must come together to develop a standard that provides consistent reporting requirements across the globe – informing stakeholders with meaningful data, keeping the costs of compliance for international businesses at a reasonable level, and reducing inconsistencies as well as risks of confusion.

The Federation’s template for a Country-by-Country report could be a good starting point in the EU and beyond. The template was discussed in the Federation’s recent and very successful roundtable debate on the subject.