Tax transparency standards – including GRI207, WEF IBC tax metrics

Last updated: 15/04/2024

In recent years, many tax reporting standards have emerged, primarily created by a range of NGOs. Two of these are starting to have a significant influence:
- GRI207 (Taxation) covers the approach to tax; tax governance, control and risk management; tax stakeholders and country-by-country tax reporting. While on a standalone basis GRI207 is a voluntary standard, it is compulsory for any existing signatories to the wider set of GRI standards for whom tax is a material issue.
- The WEF IBC Core Tax Metric encompasses total tax paid. Expanded Tax Metrics cover additional tax remitted (on behalf of others) and a breakdown of total tax paid and additional tax remitted by country for significant locations.
Other voluntary regimes (such as the Fair Tax Mark in the UK and the global B Team’s “Responsible Tax Principles”) continue to have an impact on the tax transparency disclosures of some groups.
Developments in the EU, such as the public country-by-country reporting (PCBCR), will also drive the broader tax transparency response. In 2023, the Australian government consulted on introducing PCBCR with wide extra-territorial application. The original draft of the new rules required disclosure in excess of OECD CBCR, however, this was narrowed down following the feedback received.
The EU sustainability reporting initiatives, such as the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the more recent Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), while not tax focussed per se, may, in some circumstances, require groups to disclose certain tax information.
UK groups with significant EU presence or operations may be in scope of some or all of the above-mentioned EU reporting initiatives.

A 2023 Deloitte's Global Tax Policy Survey revealed that 54% of the survey respondents expect their group to align its external communication in relation to its tax performance with a transparency standard.

Timing: as these are voluntary standards, there is no fixed deadline for adoption, however, groups are increasingly focusing on tax transparency. The EU PCBCR directive applies from the start date of the first financial year beginning on or after 22 June 2024. The Australian PCBCR rules are expected to apply from 1 July 2024.