IFF-HSG Working Papers – No. 2021-6

Corporate social responsibility is a term frequently used both in politics but also in academia. The taxation of multinational enterprises has also been at the fore-front of many debates not just because of the BEPS project but also due to the additional fiscal needs during and in the aftermath of the Pandemic. Therefore, it is no surprise that the topic of corporate social responsibility and corporate taxation are sometimes linked.

To avoid a too generic analysis, we will in the following focus on sustainability and taxation and demonstrate strengths and weaknesses of the current reporting standards in the area of sustainable taxation. The reason to focus on sustainability lies in the fact that there are not only several sustainability standards already available in corporate tax matters but also as the link between corpo-rate social responsibility and taxation seems obvious.

However, as we will argue in this paper, this link has to be viewed in a differentiated way, whereby two different rationales are to be distinguished: a (1) business development rationale focusing on the sustainable development of a corporation over decades and a (2) comprehensive development rationale focus-ing on the sustainable development of our planet and society as a whole as fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals set forth by the United Nations.