4.2. Large Companies Forum

Following the conclusions of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Forum on Tax Administration in its meetings in Seoul (2006) and Cape Town (2008), the Spanish Tax Agency has launched new types of co-operative relations with large enterprises by creating a discussion forum which, through joint or sector meetings, discusses the major problems arising in relations between large enterprises and the Tax Agency.

Hence, on 10 July 2009, the Large Enterprises Forum was set up; this body would be responsible for co-operative relations between the Tax Agency and a group of 27 large Spanish enterprises selected based on factors such as turnover, volume of tax debt deposited, volume of information supplied to the Tax Agency, number of workers, activity sector and geographical distribution.

Within this forum, several working groups were created, one of them dedicated to the development of a Code of Good Tax Practices.

This code was approved in the Forum 's plenarysession held on 20 July 2010 and has been publishedon-line on the Tax Agency website. All the companies that so wish can subscribe this code, whether or not they are members of the forum and they can freely disseminate said subscription.

The aim of this Code of Best Practice is to all together (companies and the authorities) improve the application of our tax system. The code contains a series of recommendations regarding best tax practice, both for companies and for the Tax Authorities.

Companies and the Tax Authorities assume that the fundamental aim of their relations is to avoid conflicts in the application of tax regulations before these arise and hence avoid the high costs involved in resolving said conflicts for both parties. For companies, the code will imply a higher security scenario in taxation matters which will facilitate business decision-making. For the Tax Agency, it will imply an increase in the effectiveness and efficiency of tax control.

As of 31 December 2012 sixty-five companies have subscribed to the Code of Best Tax Practices.