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Ethical Standards for Tax Planning by Corporations

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Ethics and Taxation

Abstract

This chapter focuses on corporate tax planning in the context of business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Should corporations integrate tax planning into their CSR policy? If so, how? Tax planning in the context of CSR is conceptualized in this chapter as good tax governance. Good tax governance goes further than pure compliance with the (letter of the) law because taxation has a moral dimension. Derived from that, good tax governance is presented as a counterpart for aggressive tax planning or tax avoidance. The increased public attention to corporate tax planning practices and the moral dimension of taxation are indicative of the need for corporations to engage in good tax governance if they claim to behave socially responsible. Ethical decision-making in the context of tax planning requires corporations to develop a tax code of conduct and adhere to standards of transparency. This chapter aims to show why and how tax planning can be integrated into CSR.

The author wishes to thank Robert van Brederode and Hans Gribnau for their valuable comments and feedback.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See e.g., Birrell (2014), Tax Justice Network (2017), Conway (2015), Setzler (2014).

  2. 2.

    See e.g., The UK House of Commons, Committee of Public Accounts (2012). Wintour (2015), The European Commission (2018).

  3. 3.

    Indeed, the concept of fair share is up to a debate. It is not the aim of this study to provide a comprehensive definition of this concept.

  4. 4.

    Of course, it can be argued that it is not always clear what the spirit of the law precisely is, but taxpayers engaging in dodgy structures normally do realize that they do not operate in a completely legitimate, morally or socially acceptable, manner. To test this, taxpayers could ask themselves whether they would feel comfortable if the legality of their tax practices would be publicly discussed (for instance in the news). Of course, this does not define the complex concept of the spirit of the law but it does provide a wider perspective to a simplistic argument for defending strictly legal but still dodgy tax practices.

  5. 5.

    The distinction between moral and social norms is an interesting discussion but falls out of the scope of this contribution. The underlying starting point in this paper is that moral norms and morality are personal reasoning to make the distinction between good and bad, right and wrong. Social norms, on the other hand, are the informal (and usually unwritten) rules that govern behavior in groups and societies. Both moral and social norms influence each other.

  6. 6.

    On corporate power, see, e.g., Tapscott and Ticoll (2004, 184) and Christians (2017).

  7. 7.

    Indeed, there can also be other rationales behind CSR, such as corporate responsibility to create wealth, to use wealth for social ends, or CSR as a vehicle for wealth creation (business case for CSR). See Moon et al. (2017), 34–38.

  8. 8.

    It is, nevertheless, questionable whether short-termism is in the best long-term economic interests of the company. This discussion, however, is out of the scope of this contribution.

  9. 9.

    Self-regulation stands for regulation that is “exclusively set by business” for business. Such set of rules and norms are considered to work “as a direct counterpart to governmental regulation”. Examples of such self-regulatory standards are “collective agreements or commitments by industry”, which are “intended to avoid, forestall or soften potential laws”, or corporate codes of conduct. Crane and Matten (2016, 520).

  10. 10.

    See more on reputation and trust in Ferrell et al. (2017, 37), Eccles et al. (2007), Jallai (2017).

  11. 11.

    Urbach et al. (2018), Verstappen et al. (2017).

  12. 12.

    Ravishankar (2018).

  13. 13.

    Fair Tax Mark: https://fairtaxmark.net.

  14. 14.

    The B Team (2018).

  15. 15.

    Alexander (2018).

  16. 16.

    In practice, corporations use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure whether and how business objectives are achieved. Also with regard to taxation KPIs are important for business practice for they enable to measure corporations’ tax performance against its overall business objectives and goals. It is, however, out of the scope of this chapter to propose possible examples for good tax governance KPIs. See more on KPIs and tax: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/tax/publications/assets/pwc_tax_function_of_the_future_tax_function_KPI_sept17.pdf; How to develop KPIs, see e.g. https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2016/07/indirect-tax-article-series-kpi-driving-indirect-tax-value.pdf.

  17. 17.

    Note, however, that they do not admit any wrongdoing with regard to practices that were in the centre of criticism. Therefore, such actions should be assessed critically as they may only constitute window-dressing.

  18. 18.

    The U.S. Supreme Court interprets material information as the information which would likely be “viewed by the reasonable investor as having significantly altered the total mix of information made available.” Grewal et al. (2017, 10). See also: OECD (2011, 27).

  19. 19.

    See e.g., Tax Justice Network: https://www.taxjustice.net; Oxfam Novib: https://www.oxfam.org/en/tags/tax (accessed 21.12.2018).

  20. 20.

    Many existing corporate reporting standards provide companies with guidance concerning the expected context of CSR. CSR is often measured as Triple Bottom Line that focuses on People, Planet, Profit (3Ps) [Developed by John Elkington; Elkington 2004). The Triple Bottom Line approach “aims to measure the financial, social and environmental performance of the corporation over a period of time” [The Economist (2009, November 17). Triple Bottom Line. Retrieved from: http://www.economist.com/node/14301663 (accessed 10 October 2017)]. This is also the heart of ESG reporting, which is one of the most widely used corporate responsibility reporting standards. ESG metrics help investors to calculate long-term returns for they indicate healthy corporate performance. This is important for corporations as there is evidence of increase in socially responsible investments (SRI), which “has incentivized companies to implement more comprehensive ESG reporting measures” (Skroupa 2017). A myriad of institutions provides guidance for corporations and information for investors with regard to ESG reporting and performance. For example, FTSE Russell ESG Ratings [Retrieved from: http://www.ftserussell.com/financial-data/sustainability-and-esg-data/esg-ratings (accessed 15.05.2018)] include also tax transparency as part of the (ES)Governance. One of the main motives behind voluntary CSR reporting (such as ESG reporting) is, however, the business case. Corporations use CSR reporting as a tool to “look after its powerful (i.e., often financially oriented) stakeholders and report to the extent that it benefits the company’s profits” (Herzig and Kühn 2017). However, this tool has received some criticism, for instance, with regard to the fact that CSR is too complex in order to evaluate in one number (See, e.g., Van Gils 2018). Having that said, it would be worthwhile for future researches to establish how tax would fit into ESG or other CSR reporting and evaluation calculations. For instance, benchmarks or key performance indicators (KPIs) should be developed for this purpose. See also: London Stock Exchange (2018).

  21. 21.

    https://www.unpri.org/news/new-guidance-helps-investors-engage-on-tax.

  22. 22.

    Additionally, many shareholders are concerned about corporations lobbying to influence laws and regulations that affect all aspects of the economy (McRitchie 2018), which is also important from the corporate tax planning perspective. As a matter of fact, corporate lobbying disclosure would be an important dimension of transparency for keeping both, corporations as well as politicians accountable for the sustainable system. This discussion is, nevertheless, out of the scope of this contribution.

  23. 23.

    Webpage: http://www.vbdo.nl.

  24. 24.

    ‘MEPs should support a Fair Tax Payer label’ Open letter to The Guardian 15 December 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/15/meps-should-support-a-fair-tax-payer-label (accessed 12.12.2018).

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    Ave-Geidi Jallai

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Correspondence to Ave-Geidi Jallai .

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    Robert F. van Brederode

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Jallai, AG. (2020). Ethical Standards for Tax Planning by Corporations. In: van Brederode, R. (eds) Ethics and Taxation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0089-3_9

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