Caroline Flint – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2016-09-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the contribution of the hon. Member for South West Hertfordshire on 28 June 2016, HC Deb, column 161, what his policy is on whether there is a minimum number of countries that need to be signed up to public country-by-country reporting before the UK will introduce such reporting.

Jane Ellison

For public country-by-country reporting to be effective, there needs to be sufficient international agreement. There needs to be a breadth of information from UK and foreign headquartered multinationals so that the full picture of multinationals’ activities, profits and tax paid is shown to the public.

A multilateral agreement is key to the success of the OECD country-by-country reporting model, the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, and the automatic exchange of company information.

These actions show that a multilateral approach to greater tax transparency is achievable and the Government will continue to discuss this with international partners.