Tax governance remains high on the Board’s agenda

• 77% agree or strongly agree that their group is concerned about the continuing high interest of media, political and activist groups in corporate taxation.
• 66% agree or strongly agree that the C-suite and/or Board of Directors are actively engaged in establishing and/or approving their group's tax strategy and in assessing and monitoring risk in this area.
• 41% of respondent groups are interested in joining a co-operative tax compliance programme where available and 18% have already joined or are in the process of joining such a programme.
• 85% of respondents expect an increase in stakeholder interest in tax behaviour and outcomes over the next 3 years.

Voluntary tax transparency standards are increasingly being adopted by businesses

• 60% of respondents expect their group to align its external communication in relation to its tax performance with a transparency standard.
• 33% of respondents expect to increase their level of voluntary tax transparency over the next year.
• 42% of respondents have an up-to-date tax transparency strategy for their group, which has been tested with the senior leadership.
• 55% of respondents expect that a tax transparency strategy for their group has been or will be set up within 12 months.

Pillar One / Pillar Two remains a ‘hot topic’ and businesses are preparing for the impact

• 59% of respondents expect that a critical mass of countries will implement Pillar One / Pillar Two by 2024.
• 55% of respondent groups have been actively engaged in OECD’s Pillar One /Pillar Two project consultation either directly or through other channels.
• 47% expect that Pillar One / Pillar Two will result in a significant increase in their group’s global effective tax rate.
• 62% does not expects that the implementation of Pillar Two will not cause groups to make significant changes to their corporate structure.
• 46% of respondents have a very rudimentary analysis of the impact of Pillar Two on their tax profiles.
• 55% are somewhat confident that they have readily available tax and accounting data necessary to comply with Pillar Two.
• 25% of respondents expect that U.S Senate will pass a treaty to implement Pillar One by 2023.

Tax governance remains high on the Board’s agenda

• 74% of respondents are concerned about the media coverage, political and activist group interest in corporate taxation, and 79% expect such interest to increase following COVID-19 pandemic.
• 76% of Boards are actively engaged in tax governance, this has remained high over the years.

Taxation of the digital economy remains a ‘hot topic’*

• 41% of groups have been actively engaged in the OECD’s Pillar One / Pillar Two project consultation either directly or through other channels.
• 62% of groups are concerned that a possible outcome of the OECD’s Pillar One / Pillar Two project will be an increase in their corporate tax liability.
• *These responses were provided before significant progress was made by the OECD Inclusive Framework / G20 on achieving a high level consensus on Pillar One / Pillar Two.

Cross-border co-ordination has room to improve

• Only 23% of tax leaders agree that most tax administrations will interpret the changes to the Transfer Pricing Guidelines in a consistent manner.
• 57% of groups are concerned about lack of guidance from the tax authorities around the world about the Principal Purpose Test (PPT).

Businesses are slowly securing additional resources to deal with BEPS-related changes

• Despite the unprecedented degree of change in the tax laws worldwide, only 32% of organisations have secured (or plan to secure) additional resources / headcount for their tax group.
• Only a quarter of respondents (24%) have or intend to co-source or outsource some tax group functions due to BEPS-related changes.
• Increased investment in tax-related technology appears more prominent; 47% have increased their investment in technology to cope with the volume of BEPS-related changes.

Tax governance remains high on the Board’s agenda

• 71% of respondents are concerned about the media coverage, political and activist group interest in corporate taxation and consequently, the involvement of C-suite in organisations’ tax strategies has also remained consistently high over the years
• 60% of companies have implemented additional corporate policies and procedures in response to the increased scrutiny related to corporate taxation.

Taxation of the digital economy remains a ‘hot topic’

• 44% of respondents expect a global consensus on taxation of the digital economy that will lead to changes
• 31% of tax leaders have been actively engaged in the OECD’s Pillar One/ Pillar Two project consultation
• More than half of respondents (62%) are concerned that the OECD’s Pillar One / Pillar Two project may lead to an increase in their corporate tax liability

Cross-border coordination has room to improve

• Only 23% of tax leaders agree that most tax administrations will interpret the changes to the Transfer Pricing Guidelines in a consistent manner
• 57% of groups are concerned about lack of guidance from the tax authorities around the world about the Principal Purpose Test (PPT)

Businesses are slowly securing additional resources to deal with BEPS-related changes

• Despite the unprecedented degree of change in the tax laws worldwide, only 32% of organisations have secured (or plan to secure) additional resources/headcount for their tax group
• Only a quarter of respondents (24%) have or intend to co-source or outsource some tax group functions due to BEPS-related changes
• Increased investment in tax-related technology appears more prominent; 47% have increased their investment in technology to cope with the volume of BEPS-related changes.