Publications

• Sustainable development goals are wishful thinking unless we finance them.
• Financial transparency and taxes are the keys to finance development.Did you know that one mechanism that can fight financial secrecy already exists? It is low cost, effective, and targeted to use. It will show where the money is built up.
• The only thing missing is politicians willing to use it.

• Because of downstream numbers in Statoil’s upstream country-by-country report, the report is not transparent.
• Reporting only the purchase of goods and services, and not all costs, creates the illusion that profits from the extraction activities (upstream) are higher than they actually were.
• Statoil’s report is so misleading that Statoil should republish with correct numbers for upstream activities.

• Tax administrations do not have access to the entire document trail within multinational companies today
• The Transparency Agreement can change this, on a sampling basis, so that tax administrations obtain the insight they need
• The Transparency Agreement can be used by individual countries, or by groups of countries unilaterally

Summary:

15 out of 18 elements have already been implemented in the extended country-by-country reporting. However, 3 critical elements are still missing for the legislation to work as intended and prevent companies from avoiding tax. Background: 

Norway has adopted a country-by-country reporting, which is aligned to the Dodd-Frank in the US and the Transparency Directive in the EU.

Such transparency of payments can reveal corruption.

But, today, the Extractive Industries can transfer significant profits out of the source country before it get taxed. That is why PWYP Norway has argued for, and to a large extends also succeeded in, getting extended requirements in place in Norway.

Tax payments taken out of its logical context will be of limited value.

Our policy proposal links tax payments to the audited financial statements through 8 simple accounting numbers.

Summary 

• In 2012, government expenditure worldwide was USD 28 656 billion. Total tax burden was USD 18 821 billion.

• This huge discrepancy can be reduced by closing loopholes in tax systems and preventing capital flight

• This report is about analyzing and fixing loopholes in tax systems – increasing cost-efficiency and ensuring fairer competition in extractive industries.

VIDEO: See the presentation of the report "Windfall Taxes".

Read the short 4-page briefing of the report. 

Summary:

• Natural resources have the largest value creation potential to mobilize tax revenue, but profit often ends up elsewhere.
• Today, the Extractive Industries can transfer significant profits out of the source country before it get taxed.
• One simple policy proposal, aligned with US and EU regulation, will give investors and constituents the instrument to follow their money.
• The proposal links taxpayments to the audited financial statements through 8 simple accounting numbers.

See the launch of the first version of the report here.(link is external)

See also PWYP Norway's 3-minute version of extended country-by-country reporting(link is external).

Summary:

• Lawyers have a duty of confidentiality. The confidentiality springs from “the best interest of society” and lawyers shall safeguard rule of law in the society. However, confidentiality also has a different and unintended effect that it is necessary to shed light on.
• Companies can claim client confidentiality to protect themselves against government insight into activities and transactions, transaction routes and company structures. The lawyers can also claim client confidentiality to prevent insight into to what they have participated in.
• These days, important questions regarding the extent of lawyers’ privilege of confidentiality in the tax area are being asked. PWYP Norway presents a small selection of short articles that highlight various aspects of this issue.

VIDEO: See the presentation of the report.

Summary:

• Lawyers have a duty of confidentiality. The confidentiality springs from “the best interest of society” and lawyers shall safeguard rule of law in the society. However, confidentiality also has a different and unintended effect that it is necessary to shed light on.
• Companies can claim client confidentiality to protect themselves against government insight into activities and transactions, transaction routes and company structures. The lawyers can also claim client confidentiality to prevent insight into to what they have participated in.
• These days, important questions regarding the extent of lawyers’ privilege of confidentiality in the tax area are being asked. PWYP Norway presents a small selection of short articles that highlight various aspects of this issue.

VIDEO: See the presentation of the report.

Summary: This briefing from PWYP Norway explains what the extended country-by-country reporting policy proposal is, why it is necessary, how it is streamlined with the reporting requirements in the Dodd-Frank law and the EU proposal, as well as with the extractive companies’ existing consolidation processes, and how it can be implemented easily and at low cost.

The briefing features a suggested reporting template in an easy-to-use format that captures the essential tax payment information in a meaningful context.

Would you like to know more?

• The full policy proposal was published in January 2012.
• Why is this important?

Summary: 

• Over 110 billion USD has disappeared through mispricing of crude oil in the US and the EU between 2000 and 2010.
• Profits have been moved from the source country to the extractive industry companies.
• In December 2000, the Netherlands imported crude oil for the price of 1,69 Euro per bbl. while the spot market prices were no lower than 26 Euro, resulting in an underevaluation of around 40 million Euro to the source country.

Download data in Excel and have a go at cracking the numbers yourself: