Belgium
The Belgian NAP does not directly address tax.
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Chile
III. First National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights in Chile
Normative Framework (page 20)
Business enterprises are basic economic units in society which, through their activity, may generate a series of positive impacts on society such as the creation of employment and payment of taxes which, in turn, allows the State to invest public money in the realisation of human rights.
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Colombia
The Colombia NAP makes no reference to tax.
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Czechia
Introduction [page 4]
“The diversity of legal systems can be a good thing as it is an opportunity to explore new avenues and it motivates governments to improve regulation. Yet if a country is too lax in the way it devises its rules, a competitive advantage becomes a threat. A fragmented and inconsistent legal regime can spawn unwelcome developments – tax avoidance (“aggressive tax planning”) for one thing, and human rights abuses for another.”
Most serious infringements of working conditions [page 16}
“Those working in other people’s households are another risk group. Such actions have fallout for employees, for the state (which is robbed of taxes and insurance contributions), and for honest businesses, who cannot compete with such labour.”
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Denmark
The Danish NAP makes no explicit reference to tax.
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Finland
Government covering note on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights National Action Plan
Ownership policy and social responsibility
“Companies with a controlling interest held by the State assess the human rights risks of their own operations and those of their subcontractor chains, reporting on them and their own tax procedures. In doing follow-up work on the operating principles of social responsibility, consideration should be given together with companies and other stakeholders on how models developed in ownership steering could also be applied in other company functions.”
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France
I- The State’s Obligation to Protect Human Rights
The National Framework
13. The Role of Public Agencies
The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) [page 28]
… Currently, the AFD does not apply Article 5 of Chapter III of the Act on France’s strategy for development and international solidarity, in particular the requirement to implement measures promoting the financial transparency of businesses involved in operations, country by country. Instead, the financial operators and private sector actors with which the AFD Group and PROPARCO work are encouraged to disclose information on their turnover, profits, employee numbers and taxes paid in each country they are based in. This measure, called “country-by-country reporting”, is already compulsory for European banks.
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Georgia
There is no mention of tax in the Business and Human Rights Chapter of the Georgian Human Rights NAP.
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Germany
1.2 Public procurement
The current situation [page 22]
“Following the reform of procurement law in 2016, with which three new EU procurement directives were transposed into German law, the new Part IV of the Restraints of Competition Act lays particular emphasis on observance of the law, especially taxation, labour and social legislation (sections 97(3) and 128(1) of the Act).”
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Ireland
The Irish NAP makes no direct reference to tax.
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Italy
The Italian NAP makes no direct reference to tax.
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Lithuania
Objective 1: ensuring State’s duty to protect, defend and respect human rights
E. Measures related to international obligations [page 4]
2. “Accession to the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The aim is to create conditions for the ratification of the Convention following Lithuania’s accession to the OECD. To successfully accede to this Convention, criminal legislation must contain a special rule providing for the liability of natural and legal persons for the bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. The legislation must also prohibit tax deductions from money obtained as bribes, irrespective of this money being accounted for in accordance with applicable legal requirements.”
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Luxembourg
The Luxembourg NAP does not make an explicit reference to taxation.
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Netherlands
3.4 Transparency and reporting [page 30]
Reporting
“The government supports the growing number of international initiatives to promote transparency by means of tax disclosure. It takes an active part in discussions in the EU on a possible expansion of obligatory tax disclosure by companies operating internationally to include payments to countries where they are active. It urges attention for possible adverse economic consequences of making this information public, and for close harmonisation with existing transparency requirements.”
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Norway
The Norwegian NAP makes no direct reference to tax.
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Poland
Pillar I: The state’s duty to protect human rights
Addition of general principles in administrative proceedings [page 22]:
On the grounds of tax law, the Constitutional Court9 has indicated that the public administration authorities should, in accordance with the principle of in dubio pro tributario, resolve interpretation doubts in favour of the taxpayer. On the other hand, in the context of the protection of the right to property, the Supreme Administrative Court has argued in favour of restrictive interference with the rights of the owner.10 There is no doubt that the principle of in dubio pro libertate permeates all administrative law.11 By extending this principle to the level of proceedings before administrative authorities, the provisions that are questionable should be interpreted in such a way that legitimate interests of citizens are not harmed.
Appendix 1
International non-binding mechanisms and international legal framework in force in Poland in relation to business and human rights [page 55]:
Corporate responsibility for infringements of international human rights standards/norms is provided for in non-binding mechanisms. In this respect, apart from the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the following documents should be mentioned: “The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: rules for different areas, from employee relations, environmental issues, respect for human rights, and occupational safety, through issues of access to information, taxation, environmental protection, and due diligence in business. The OECD Guidelines contain a dispute settlement mechanism involving the possibility of submitting notifications to the OECD NCP on the infringement of the Guidelines. The OECD NCP examines the case and, provided it has grounds to do so, recommends mediation proceedings to the parties.
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Slovenia
The Slovenian NAP makes no reference to taxation.
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South Korea
South Korea’s NAP makes no reference to taxation.
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Spain
The Spanish NAP makes no explicit reference to taxation.
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Sweden
Annex: Measures taken [page 24]
The State as owner
- “Like other state-owned companies, Swedfund International AB (Swedfund) and the Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK) are required to comply with the government state ownership policy for CSR, as described above. Moreover, Swedfund and SEK have social mandates specially adopted by the Riksdag. Swedfund is required to ensure that its investments comply with international standards and CSR principles, within clear and sound corporate structures that do not contribute to tax evasion, money laundering or terrorist financing. SEK is required to take account of conditions such as the environment, corruption, human rights and working conditions in its credit assessments”
Annex: Measures planned [page 27]
Regulations and legislation
- “An inquiry has presented further proposals for modern, effective and legally certain administrative proceedings. The continued development of administrative proceedings and specialisation for tax cases (Swedish Government Official Reports 2014:76) was presented in December 2014 and has been circulated for comment.”
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Switzerland
The Swiss NAP does not make an explicit reference to Taxation.
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Thailand
3 The core content of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights
3.1 Action plan on labour
3.1.1 Overall situation
For the promotion of employment of the elderly, the Ministry of Labour has prepared legislation to issue an hourly minimum wage for elderly employees, and include plans to open a service centre for employment for the elderly. Tax incentives will be issued to encourage private sector agencies to hire elderly workers aged 60 years and over. Starting from the accounting period beginning on or after 1 January 2016 onwards, the private sector can file in their corporate income taxes an exemption of up to 100 percent of the money paid to senior employees in accordance with the Royal Decree on the Revenue Code regarding Tax Exemption (No. 639) 2017, which is in effect from 3 March 2017, and the Notification of the Director-General of the Revenue Department on Income Tax (No. 290) dated 14 March 2017. This measure is meant to support the elderly to have an opportunity to continue working and have sufficient post-retirement income, reducing social inequality and alleviating the government welfare budget burden on a long-term basis – as Thailand will enter the Aged Society in 2021.
3.1.3 Action Plan (2019–2022)
Pillar 1: State duties in protecting (Protect)
No. |
Issues |
Activities |
Responsible agencies |
Time-frame (2019–2022) |
Indicators (wide frame) |
Compliance with National Strategy/ SDGs/UNGPs |
10. |
Children of migrant workers |
Encouraging establishments to organize childcare centres at work by registering as child service centres in the workplace with the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Such establishments will receive tax deductions and children of employees and workers are taken care of with proper development. |
– Ministry of Social Development and Human Security
– Ministry of Labour |
2019–2022 |
Number of establishments registered as a child service centre in the workplace |
– National Strategy for Human Capital Development and Strengthening
– SDG 8 and 11
– UNGPs Articles 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 |
3.2 Action plan for community, land, natural resources and the environment
3.2.1 Overview of the situation
The government has tried to solve problems by raising the level of competitiveness, promoting research and development, restructuring of economic and social structures such as tax structure (inheritance tax and land tax), setting up the rules of society to be secure and fair, promoting equality and opportunity to access public resources and services, promoting good governance, and eliminating corruption and patronage systems while in the short-term, implementing measures to help farmers and low-income people affected by the economy and disasters.
4. The promotion of implementation of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights and mechanisms for monitoring, follow-up and evaluation of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights
4.2 Examples of long-term activities (4 years)
10. Consider a study incentive for business such as tax incentives and other benefits as a way to encourage the business sector/state |
Ministry of Justice |
2019–2022 |
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United Kingdom
The UK 2013 NAP makes no reference to tax.
The UK 2016 Updated NAP mentions tax in the section devoted to Myanmar Centre For Responsible Business in Burma [page 19], where it points to the tax evasion as being one of the important issues in the context of responsible business conduct:
“The media has turned to MCRB for comments on a range of responsible business issues which MCRB is using to shape debates on issues as diverse as tax evasion and environmental impacts, and to highlight international standards and key issues in Myanmar.”
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United States
The U.S. NAP makes no direct reference to tax.
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