The obligation to disclose tax strategies in the context of discussions on corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Background: This article presents a new legal and tax institution related to publishing information on the implemented tax strategy in the field of the general discussion on the introduction of tax issues to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. The article presents a new legal and tax institution related to publishing corporate social responsibility (CSR) information in tax strategies The article presents a new legal and tax institution related to publishing corporate social responsibility (CSR) information in tax strategies. The discussion on the introduction of tax transparency issues to CSR reporting has been going on for some time; however, in 2021, the Polish legislator decided to introduce to the tax law a new institution that may fit into the stream of corporate social responsibility. For this reason, it is worth looking at both this new institution and its global analogues, as well as embedding them in the topic of corporate social responsibility, especially since the legislator himself refers to CSR.

Research purpose: The purpose of this article is to make a preliminary analysis of the implemented tax strategy’s public disclosures in terms of its compatibility with CSR and to present this institution against the background of the international economic, ethical, legal, and social contexts.

Methods: In this paper, a comparative analysis of new regulations on the public disclosure of tax strategies and similar institutions that exist in other countries is applied. It is supported by a dogmatic and legal analysis of the discussed regulations, as well as an economic analysis of the law to determine the extent to which the new legal and tax institution can contribute to the development and consolidation of CSR management methods in Poland.

Conclusions: The new regulations on publishing tax strategies have some potential for CSR, but it is partly offset by the legislator’s tendency to create regulations mainly in the interest of tax administration. There is no doubt that introducing this legally innovative institution may change the way of thinking about tax issues in CSR in Poland, but it seems that the legislator already had a better model from the CSR point of view. The voluntary publication of tax strategies remains an open question; however, it does not seem to be the key issue from the point of view of tax transparency in CSR.