The UK Government has accepted a cross-party backbench amendment to Finance Bill 2016 which gives HM Treasury powers to introduce public country-by-country reporting. The amendment allows, but does not compel, HM Treasury to bring forward regulations to require groups to include a country-by-country report in their published group tax strategy.
For these purposes, a country-by-country report would be defined by the existing UK regulations, implementing the Action 13 proposals of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to counter base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), which require such a report to be filed with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). No date for introducing public CBCR is stipulated. The requirement for certain groups to publish a tax strategy is to be introduced for all accounting periods commencing after Royal Assent to Finance Bill 2016.
