Tax transparency and the marketplace: A pathway to state sustainability

INTRODUCTION 1. MEASURING ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION VIA TAX DISCLOSURE 1.1 Starbucks 1.2 Arguments Against Tax Disclosure 1.2.1 TAX INFORMATION ALREADY DISCLOSED IN ACCOUNTING STATEMENTS 1.2.2 PRIVACY ARGUMENTS 1.3 Conclusion 2. MEASURING COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS VIA TAXWITHHOLDING 2.1 Policy Considerations 2.1.1 WAGES 2.1.2 INCOME FROM PASSIVE SOURCES 2.2 Calculating Corporate Contributions to the State: Practical Complexities 3. MEASURING ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION VIA EXTERNALITIES AND SCORING 3.1 Theoretical Analysis 3.2 Social Scoring 3.3 Implementation and Apple Case Study 3.3.1 IMPLEMENTATION 3.3.2 APPLE 3.4 Tax Reform 4. CONCLUSION When company shares first began to be widely held and exchanged, two models of financial market regulation emerged. The English model favoured transparency and disclosure, rather than intervention by the state, holding paramount the right of investors to make informed decisions. (1) By contrast, the American model was not overly concerned with informational aspects and instead preferred to reserve the state's right to intervene in projects and proposals that were deemed to be unworthy of the public's money. (2) As the markets evolved, the English disclosure model and the investor's right to make financial decisions based on comprehensive information came to be preferred over the paternalistic right of the state to intervene. (3) The evolution of financial market disclosure rules gradually evolved to encompass the requirements that are present in today's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form 10--K and the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval Annual Information Form, the benchmark information disclosure mechanisms imposed on publicly traded companies in the United States and Canada respectively. (4) Market catastrophes--including the South Sea Bubble, (5) the Enron debacle, (6) or the (2008) recession--have been important catalysts for such change. In response to the 2008 recession, the United States Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Act, (7) which, like other post-financial crisis legislation, attempted to re-align the structure of financial markets in a way that would allow for both the prevention and real-time regulation of problems that could cause a worldwide meltdown of the financial system. One of the most interesting facets of the Dodd-Frank Act is the Extractive Industry Earnings Initiative (EITI), located at section 1504 of the legislation and added as a last-minute rider, which was almost certainly part of a political horse-trading deal. (8) The purpose of EITI is to restrain US petroleum and mining multinationals from engaging in or facilitating corrupt practices in resource-rich, but economically poor, countries by requiring the publication of all payments made to foreign governments. (9) The corollary of this disclosure requirement, as it was initially proposed, was that the foreign tax returns of US extractive companies would become public, (10) thus opening up a form of disclosure that had never before been necessary in order to operate in most financial markets. What is perhaps unique about the Dodd-Frank Act is that it requires companies to disclose data that is not necessarily indicative of their financial health. In other words, the EITI provisions suggest a shift in the needs and concerns of twenty-first century market participants--that is, members of the general public interacting with businesses as consumers or investors--who are no longer merely attuned to a company's bottom line, but are also concerned about the social impacts resulting from a company's behaviour. Phenomena like the benefit corporation (11) and sustainable investment funds (12) further support the theory that investors increasingly factor non-economic consequences into their financial decision making. On the consumer side, the prevalence of fair-trade practices and eco- and green-labelling show that today's buyers are similarly guided by concerns that go beyond the quality and price of products, services, and goods. …

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