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ADVOCACY<br />
Jane McCormick,<br />
Global Head of Tax,<br />
KPMG International<br />
the UK as well as a series of consensus-seeking workstreams<br />
on, inter alia, the role of corporation<br />
tax; the needs of the developing world; the<br />
demands of transparency; and the core challenge<br />
of tax morality itself.<br />
What began as a KPMG UK initiative now has real<br />
national and global momentum.<br />
A constant conversation with no easy answers<br />
KPMG fully endorses the OECD and BEPS initiatives<br />
geared towards transparency and, coordination of<br />
international tax rules. It is true that sovereign states<br />
have the right to decide what tax system is most<br />
appropriate for their situation; but, one country’s<br />
tax competitiveness can be easily interpreted by<br />
others as supporting tax avoidance. MNEs may look<br />
to arbitrage conflicting rules to reduce their tax rate<br />
or may just be caught in the cross fire between the<br />
various countries and stakeholders with different<br />
priorities and views. Hence, the visible need for<br />
an open and honest, global discussion. KPMG’s<br />
experience in the UK has provided the firm with<br />
the high-altitude training required to help lead the<br />
discussion – and hence these first stages in now<br />
convening a global council on Responsible Tax.<br />
An informed, collective conversation, reaching<br />
to the heart of taxation as a concept, and playedout<br />
against a global economy, has wide-reaching<br />
potential to change the way we think about tax and<br />
therefore business’s relationship to society.<br />
The first stage in initiating this debate will<br />
be to ensure participants in the conversation<br />
can ask the right questions. A recent 2016 event<br />
hosted by KPMG for Chief Tax Officers to discuss<br />
the global roll-out of the tax debate revealed a<br />
number of issues currently vexing the corporate<br />
tax community:<br />
• What will it take to make a difference globally<br />
and create a real tax coalition between nations?<br />
• How do we engage all sides in conversation<br />
(corporations, policy-makers and civil society)<br />
to ensure a balanced debate?<br />
• How do we build technical capacity for<br />
responsible tax to take root and flourish?<br />
• How do we ensure the debate on responsible<br />
tax fully engages and respects the challenges<br />
of developing countries?<br />
• How important is US support in this debate?<br />
How can it be properly integrated?<br />
These are just five opening questions.<br />
There will undoubtedly be more. KPMG is<br />
pleased to help lead and host the debate,<br />
recognising its importance for issues not only<br />
of global taxation but also of public trust and<br />
confidence in business. We appreciate that there<br />
is no easy answer, but we very much hope that<br />
others are ready and willing to join-in to help<br />
us further develop thinking around Responsible<br />
Tax behaviour and advice.<br />
KPMG<br />
tax@kpmg.com<br />
www.kpmg.com
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