Governments need tax revenues in order to provide infrastructure, education, healthcare, social security, and other public goods and services. It is important that all companies, which benefit from these public goods and services as well, make an appropriate contribution by paying their fair share of taxes. This is a core aspect of corporate accountabilty

However, some companies use aggressive tax avoidance strategies to avoid tax payments (via loopholes in the law) or even engage in tax evasion (violating the law). As a consequence, governments have less budget available to provide essential public goods and services. Tax avoidance also results in unfair competition, because large multinational corporations usually have more opportunities to avoid or evade taxation than their smaller and domestic competitors. In addition, such tax avoidance shifts the burden of tax to labour and consumption, which can be detrimental to equitable economic development.

SOMO investigates aggressive tax avoidance by multinationals, with a focus on tax avoidance strategies involving entities in the Netherlands. Because of the importance of tax issues, SOMO aims to include them in all its projects on corporate accountability and encourages other civil society organizations to do the same. To other organisations working on corporate accountability or development financing, SOMO offers expertise and customised research and advisory services on corporate taxation.

Tax Justice News