The third mechanism that was identified earlier through which companies
seek to avoid tax is through artificial financial arrangements. Again, there
should be a commitment not to use such arrangements in order to reduce the
company’s tax burden, unless there was a non-tax related reason for doing so.
A responsible tax strategy involves not only taking steps to ensure that the
company does not engage in tax avoidance, but also requires a high level of
transparency. This includes not only transparency in payments made, as is
required, for example, by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, but
could be extended to reporting on a country-by-country basis.
Tax avoidance is not the only negative aspect of corporate behaviour that affects government fiscal revenues. The pressure to reduce tax rates in order to attract investment which governments are often subject to from multilateral development institutions, and the broader context of ‘tax competition’ between countries, also undermine the ability of governments to obtain adequate fiscal resources. Contrary to current practices, corporate responsibility would involve a company agreeing not to lobby or pressure host governments to provide it with more favourable tax treatment. This might be consistent with the increasing emphasis within CSR on ‘responsible lobbying’.