ECIIA: Internal audit could review corporate tax disclosures

15 September 2015

According to the ECIIA, internal auditors could play a key role in the EC efforts to improve corporate tax transparency by reviewing organisations’ disclosures to the tax authorities, or to the general public.

“Internal auditors are ideally placed to give assurance over the contents of the disclosure document and the controls governing the processes in place to generate it,” Thijs Smit, ECIIA President, says, responding to the EC’s consultation on tax transparency. “So we see no need for an external reviewer to check whether the report has been properly compiled and is based on sound data.”

The Commission is canvassing views on whether all large businesses in the European Union should be required to disclose the tax they pay in every country where they operate, either to the tax authorities, to the public, or to both. At present, they are only required to disclose the total amount of tax paid for all EU countries in which they operate in a consolidated statement.

The consultation is part of the Commission’s broader Action Plan for Fair and Efficient Corporate Taxation and closed on 9 September.

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