Side event: Tax Morale and Responsible Compliance: The Role of Tax and Business Principles

Date: 11 September 2019

Time: 15:30 - 17:00

About

As part of a new project on tax morale, the OECD has recently reanalysed the results of a survey of business perceptions on tax certainty, to identify the constraints and concerns they face in paying in taxes around the world. A new publication to be launched at this session, Tax Morale: What Drives People and Businesses to Pay Tax? (OECD 2019), has identified some of the factors that may impact tax morale and attitudes towards compliance among businesses, and how they differ in different regions. 

In addition, in recent years, business has set out a range of principles and voluntary reporting standards on tax policy and compliance, bringing corporate tax affairs into the realm of Corporate Social Responsibility, and creating an emphasis by some on businesses role as responsible taxpayers¹. The impact of these latter measures is difficult to track, especially away from corporate headquarters. To gauge that impact, the OECD is undertaking a further survey of tax officials to test how the behaviour of business matches up to their own principles.  

This session brings together a range of actors involved in the creation and implementation of such principles and standards, to discuss the pros and cons of each, and where and how changes have occurred as a result. It will also discuss how such principles and standards are viewed from the tax authorities, as well as the overlaps with the tax certainty agenda. 

Panel

• Grace Perez-Navarro - Chair (Deputy Director, OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration)
• Alan McLean (Deputy Chair Business at OECD Committee on Taxation and Fiscal Policy/Executive Vice President Taxation and Corporate Structure Royal Dutch Shell)
• Marlene Parker (Chief Tax Counsel, Legislation, Treaties, and International Tax Matters - Tax Administration Jamaica)
• Professor Christiana HJI Panayi (Professor in Tax Law Queen Mary University of London)
• B-Team representative (Representative to be confirmed)

Questions for discussion

• Why have we seen the growth of tax and business principles in the last few years, and what has the impact of such principles been?
• Can such principles replace/reduce the need for legislation, and in what conditions?
• What are the challenges for MNEs in consistently applying such principles across all the jurisdictions they operate in – how can these be addressed?
• How can we track the impact of these principles – what evidence can we expect to see?
• Why do companies choose to voluntarily adopt such principles/standards – do they indicate tax morale, or something else?
• What factors drive the tax morale of companies – and how can we measure them?

How to attend

The event is open to all delegates attending the IFA 2019 Congress in London. See Congress website for further details, including on how to register.

KEY DOCUMENTS

• Public consultation document - What is driving tax morale?
• Tax Morale: What Drives People and Businesses to Pay Tax?

CONTACT

• General enquiries should be sent to TaxandDevelopment@oecd.org.
• Media enquiries should be sent to ctp.communications@oecd.org.