More from Bloomberg: New Tax Disclosure Regimes Still Leave Gaps in Information

Bloomberg article on new tax disclosure regimes

Bloomberg reports further on new corporate tax disclosures in the US, EU, and Australia which will provide investors with more information about companies' tax payments, but they point out that some information will still be missing.

Tax-transparency groups say the new disclosures will be beneficial, while businesses and their allies are (unsurprisingly), skeptical.

Bloomberg examines new regimes in the US, EU and Australia, noting that ‘the three regimes have different standards for what companies must disclose, including different information, countries, and rules for avoiding disclosure’.

The US disclosures, which took effect this year for public companies and go into effect next year for private companies require companies to disclose taxes paid to other countries that comprise more than 5% of their annual tax bill. They also show foreign tax effects and other factors causing them to pay more or less in taxes than the 21% US corporate tax rate.

The EU and Australian regimes are both more far-reaching, requiring multinationals that do business there to report tax payments and other information for dozens of countries. However, of the two, Australia requires more information, and the list of countries for which disclosure is required centers more on countries regarded as tax havens.

“Right now, Australia is the gold standard,” said Zorka Milin, policy director at the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, pointing out that the EU regime presents more loopholes for companies and “will still remain largely optional for companies in the short term,”

CICTAR was instrumental, alongside national union allies and Public Services International, in bringing about the new regime in Australia. “The new information will be hugely beneficial, but there will still be some gaps,” said Jason Ward,principal analyst at the Center for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research. Adding that it would be better to have a single regime, “and hopefully we will get there.