What is the Large Business Forum?
Collaboration framework based on transparency and mutual trust
Background
The 2005 Tax Fraud Prevention Plan established among its organizational measures to strengthen internal coordination and functional integration in the State Tax Administration Agency (hereinafter, Tax Agency) the creation of a Central Delegation of Large Taxpayers as the only interlocutor with the large companies attached to it. This meant a change in organization and culture and a consolidated relationship framework, although it could be improved.
To this end, the update of the Prevention Plan carried out in 2008 provided for the implementation of a new type of cooperative relationship with a small number of large companies in two phases:
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The creation of a discussion forum with large taxpayers in which the main problems that arise in the relationship between large companies and the Tax Administration are analyzed, through joint or sectoral meetings, and the extension of the tax model is assessed. cooperative relationship.
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The possible implementation of a special framework through which the Administration would provide, in terms consistent with the needs of the companies, a criterion on the tax consequences of their operations in exchange for total transparency about them, provided that the companies that voluntarily that benefit from this special framework, offer as much information as is necessary so that the Administration can establish its criteria.
With the Large Companies forum, the first of the indicated phases was launched.
Likewise, the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of August 14, 2008 approved certain short-term measures to reduce the administrative burdens of companies, among which is the establishment of direct contacts with the Boards of Directors of large companies and creation of a business forum to debate the topics that may be of most interest to this type of taxpayers.
In this same sense, the OECD , in the Tax Administration Forum (Seoul, 2006 and Cape Town, 2008), reached the following conclusions:
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It must be started from the premise that company administration is responsible to all shareholders for carrying out good management of corporate activity, especially in the current times of global financial crisis.
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Within managerial activity, the way tax risk management is addressed can affect the financial results and reputation of the company. For this reason, it is considered that general management and boards of directors must increase their interest in fiscal risk management as part of corporate governance.
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Tax administrations play a vital role and must ensure that boards of directors know that they are ultimately responsible for tax strategies. It is stated that tax administrations are, in this sense, promoting relationships with large companies, as a way to obtain numerous mutual benefits.
On the other hand, the Report of the special working group on good governance of listed companies of May 19, 2006 of the CNMV ("Good Governance Code") indicated that the interest of shareholders provides a guide for action that must be developed respecting the requirements imposed by law, for example, in tax regulations. In this sense, among the Recommendations made to the Audit Committee, the need was indicated for the risk control and management policy to identify at least the different types of risk (operational, technological, financial, legal, reputational... ), as well as the information and internal control systems that will be used to control and manage the aforementioned risks, including contingent liabilities or off-balance sheet risks.
Finally, it should be noted that in 2008 a survey was carried out among companies affiliated with the Central Delegation of Large Taxpayers in which they stated that the Tax Agency offered good assistance mechanisms in preparing returns, modern technology at the service of taxpayers and a positive and flexible attitude in the area of information and assistance. Thus, the assessment by large companies was overall satisfactory in the information and assistance actions and not so much in the area of control, in which they believed that some improvements could be introduced.
Starting up
Within the indicated framework, a Large Business Forum was launched as a cooperative relationship body to promote greater collaboration between large businesses and the State Tax Administration, based on the principles of transparency and mutual trust, through knowledge and sharing the problems that may arise in the application of the tax system.
In this sense, we contacted a group of companies attached to the Central Delegation of Large Taxpayers that, depending on their turnover volume, volume of tax debt received, volume of information provided to the Tax Administration, number of workers, sector of activity and geographical distribution, were considered representative of all of them and susceptible to agile dialogue for these purposes.
The initial participation of a small group of companies should not be interpreted in any way as a sign of privilege for these participants with respect to other contributors, since, in any case, the agreements adopted in the Forum are of general application to all the affected taxpayers.
Finally, it should be noted that the initial group of participants in the Forum can perfectly be modified in the future and even other forums can be created for specific territorial areas.
Rules of operation
The Operating Rules, as well as the possible topics to be discussed within the Forum, are developed in the Forum's Operating Rules.
The criteria underlying these Standards are the following:
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The Forum has an informal, associative, flexible and unbureaucratized character.
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It works in plenary sessions and in working groups. The Plenary identifies the problems and adopts the agreements and the Working Groups analyze the problems and propose solutions.
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Participation in the Plenary Session is configured at the highest level of representation: Secretary of State for Finance and Budgets and Board of Directors of the AEAT on the one hand and members of the Boards of Directors of the companies on the other.
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Participation in the Working Groups is established at a more technical and flexible level.