France backs country-by-country corporate tax reporting from 2016
French lawmakers sought to tackle corporate tax avoidance on Thursday, voting to require big French companies to report tax information on their foreign activities on a country-by-country basis from 2016.
The French government wants to get an early start on implementing an OECD recommendation for country-by-country reporting that aims to make it more difficult for big companies to shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions.
Government debt burdens have triggered a public outcry about measures than enable international companies to reduce their tax bills. In the euro zone, tax breaks offered by Luxembourg and Ireland aroused particular criticism.
Lawmakers in France‘s lower house of parliament backed an amendment to the 2016 budget bill that would require country-by-country reporting for companies with pre-tax revenue worth 750 million euros (530 million pounds) or more.
Under the new regulation, such companies will have to report on profits and other “economic, accounting and fiscal” data by country as well information about their activities in the countries where they operate.
The information gathered could also be exchanged with tax authorities in other countries that have adopted the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s recommendation to require country-by-country reporting.
The Paris-based OECD laid out a series of recommendations last month to crack down on corporate tax dodging that is due to go before countries belonging to the Group of 20 economic powers at a summit next week.
