GTC: how American efforts are changing taxation around the globe

Anyone who takes a professional interest (or even out of mere personal interest) in taxation, knows that the American authorities have a big stake in the game. The US is one of the few countries in the world, for example, that manages to impose its taxation laws extraterritorially through FATCA, among others. And where European efforts to force Switzerland to give up its banking secret did not seem to yield any tangible results, when the Americans got involved the Swiss gave it up fairly quickly.

GTC: global tax controversy

Things have been quite different for a while when it concerned the global tax controversy (GTC) regarding tax evasion. Many multinational corporations and wealthy individuals alike have managed for many years to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. The fact that tax havens such as the US Virgin Islands, which as the name implies fall under the control of Washington DC, have facilitated tax evasion, says a lot about the role the United States has played regarding GTC.

US efforts to rein in GTC

The world, however, seems to be changing a fair bit, according to TPA Global. In large parts these efforts are driven by the United States and other large European countries, which are U.S. allies in most respects. This necessitates multinational organizations across the board – and especially the ones that have not been evading taxes – to find ways to mange risk. Otherwise, they risk getting hit by various IDR document requests and other outcomes of tax audits that as an organization you would rather avoid.

GTC necessitates a pro-active approach

For multinationals, TPA Global says the implications of GTC are that it is important to adopt a pro-active approach. Sophisticated software is needed that allows a good planning of the various activities that tax professionals working for multinationals need to engage in. These IT solutions need to also process a lot of data and they must be able to produce the right types of documents, so that tax professionals can focus on the increasingly difficult tax related activities. TPA Global can help set up the IT infrastructure needed to implement this. For more information, we therefore refer you to TPA Global.