Tax Impact of Multinationals in Central and Eastern Europe on Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are increasingly seeking to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and inclusiveness within the societies they operate in, often by highlighting the amount of tax they pay. The author proposes to summarize channels through which tax impacts the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and analyze them in relation to a single goal, SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) in a single region (the Central and Eastern Europe, CEE). The impact of tax is often ambivalent, but above all it is hard to quantify as there are many stakeholders involved and corporations still tend to disguise their internal information. The author analyzes MNEs’ operations in the CEE region to better understand how reporting standards influence the achievement of SDG 10, focusing on country-by-country reporting (CbCR) and non-financial reporting of European banks and other corporations who publish CbCR on a voluntary basis. The authors perform a quantitative analysis of CbCR data and a qualitative investigation of 201 non-financial reports by 30 MNEs. From the theoretical viewpoint, this research may help to construct a framework to evaluate the tax impact of a given company. Given that, this chapter also outlines why and how it can be beneficial for MNEs to publish voluntary reports it can also serve to motivate increased voluntary participation of MNEs in the transition to sustainability.

Citation

Procházka, P. (2023), "Tax Impact of Multinationals in Central and Eastern Europe on Sustainable Development Goals", van Tulder, R., Giuliani, E. and Álvarez, I. (Ed.) International Business and Sustainable Development Goals (Progress in International Business Research, Vol. 17), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 203-224. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1745-886220230000017011