Tax Transparency in Sustainability Reporting

Transparency in information disclosure in financial and non-financial reporting provides assurance of investor protection, allowing them to assess portfolio risks and opportunities better. Currently, there is not enough established practice in the scientific and business community to determine the transparency level of sustainability reporting that meets the needs of stakeholders and the ability of businesses to disclose information about their activities. The purpose of the article is to develop and test a matrix for assessing the tax policy disclosure quality, capable of measuring the transparency level of sustainability reporting compiled in accordance with the GRI 207 standard. The article involves the empirical research method used, which consists of collecting and analyzing published scientific works in peer-reviewed academic journals. In addition, a sample of Russian companies that submit reports on sustainable development to the National Register of Corporate Non-Financial Reports of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) is tested. In order to determine the quality of disclosure of information on tax policy in sustainability reports in accordance with the GRI 207 standard, a matrix is proposed that takes into account both the volume and the method of presentation of textual information. The work assesses the degree of disclosure of information on the tax policy of 80 Russian companies in 7 types of activities (oil and gas; metallurgical and mining; energy; finance and insurance; production of food and other consumer goods; chemical, petrochemical, and perfumery; communications and data transmission). These industries submit the largest number of sustainability reports. The conducted comparative research allowed the authors to conclude that many companies use GRI 207 in varying degrees to disclose information, but not all information fully complies with the disclosure requirements of GRI 207. The majority of Russian companies in the sample preferred to use a short description, without quantitative data, to disclose GRI tax indicators.