Developing sustainable corporate tax governance

Today’s world is changing rapidly and companies are contributing to it. Think of the big tech companies that have dramatically changed the way we communicate and behave. Some corporations are larger than small states, and they influence society and the everyday lives of countless people - not just their employees, and the environment in no small measure. Stakeholders, however, perceive that companies often pay too little attention to their environmental impact. Other stakeholders’ concerns and expectations are frequently neglected as well.
In addition, many policy goals that governments pursue and try to achieve through good public governance cannot be achieved without the help of the business community, combating further global warming is a pregnant example (climate). Sustainable development has become an important driver of government policies. This is however far too complex a problem to be solved solely by governments. Cooperation between government, businesses and society is urgently needed.
Unsurprisingly, sustainability is also high on the corporate governance agenda and translated into their ‘Environmental, Social & Governance’ (ESG) policies. Taxes are crucial to sustainable development. This requires corporations to gear their governance towards sustainability; it requires sustainable corporate tax governance.
This chapter starts with depicting some views on a number of crises the present-day world is facing. Taxes and corporations play a notable role in each of these crises. A look at history will then show that this is not new to the world. Next various developments in the field of corporate tax governance will be briefly analysed along two dimensions: paying a fair share of taxes and transparency.