Navigating Tax Sustainability

Aligning Corporate Practices with ESG

In today’s business landscape, there is an increasing focus on corporate sustainability, with taxation being a significant part of this agenda. Increasingly, companies are expected to operate in a tax sustainable manner and there is no shortage of guidance on best practice.

Unlike other facets of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”), there is no universal regulatory framework for tax transparency and governance. There are helpful guidelines but the general steer is that corporates should do better. Moreover, the right approach to governance and transparency required and appropriate for one company might not be suitable or needed by another.

While there is no universally recognised definition for tax governance, it generally encompasses the principles and structures guiding an organisation’s approach to tax management. With increased regulation, including from outside the tax world such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”), expectations around robust tax governance are rising and the internal tax function can no longer afford to be hidden in the back office.

This report is the first in a series exploring the components of ESG as they relate to tax sustainability and, importantly, the actions and data that are appropriate to meet the increasing expectations of both legacy and new stakeholder groups.

Click here to download the full report.