The corporate tax avoidance debate seems to have "suddenly" made the switch from being immaterial to material. This time line of key events, however, suggests a different conclusion: NGOs, campaigning journalists and progressive foundations have worked over decades to force the issue on to the business and investor agenda.

1. Corporate Tax Avoidance Debate:
Key Milestones
(1992 to 2015)
Dr Raj Thamotheram (Director, Preventable Surprises) &
Kazutaka Kuroda (Associate, Preventable Surprises)
1
Orange = NGOs, campaign journalists & progressive foundations
Blue = corporations & investors
Green = governments & inter-government bodies

2. Tax avoidance debate timeline
(1992-2005)
2
Date Events
1992 "International Business Taxation" (Sol Picciotto)
23 May 1996
OECD Ministrial Meeting - commitment to work towards a common approach to the
problems posed by harmful tax competition1
July 1996
G7 Lyon Summit - reference to the emerging need for international tax reform, support of
OECD tax competition work2
November 1996 "The Offshore Interface" (Mark Hampton)3
09 April 1998 OECD "Harmful Tax Competition" report4
June 2000 Oxfam "Tax Havens: Releasing the hidden billions for poverty eradication“5
Late 2002
John Christiansen convened first meeting at the European Social Forum of what would
become the Tax Justice Network
During 2003 Tax Justice Network founded
During 2005 JRCT made first grant to Tax Justice Network
February 2005 Henderson "Tax, Risk and Corporate Governance" report6
March 2005 Tax Justice Network "Price of Offshore“7
September 2005 Tax Justice Network "Tax us if you can 1st Edition“8
October 2005 Henderson "Responsible Tax" report9
Source:
1 http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/oecd/oecd96.htm
2 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_DOC-96-5_en.htm
3 http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/?sf1=id_product&st1=256463
4 http://www.oecd.org/tax/transparency/44430243.pdf
5 http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/tax-havens-releasing-the-hidden-billions-for-poverty-eradication-114611
6 http://www.henderson.com/content/sri/publications/reports/taxriskcorporategovernance.pdf
7 http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Price_of_Offshore.pdf
8 http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/tuiyc_-_eng_-_web_file.pdf
9 http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Global_Henderson_-_ResponsibleTax_-_OCT_2005.pdf

3. Tax avoidance debate timeline
(2008 - July 2012)
3
Source:
10 http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Country-by-country_reporting_-_080322.pdf
11 http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2009/04/art-563944/
12 See page 9 http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Tax_Transparency_-_Seizing_the_initiative/$FILE/EY_Tax_Transparency.pdf
13 http://www.actionaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/doc_lib/tax_responsibility.pdf
14 http://www.efrag.org/files/ProjectDocuments/Proactive%20-%20Income%20Taxes/120127_Income_tax_DP_final.pdf
15 See page 9 http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Tax_Transparency_-_Seizing_the_initiative/$FILE/EY_Tax_Transparency.pdf
Date Events
March 2008
Tax Justice Network "Country by Country Reporting: How to Make Multinational
Companies More Transparent“10
15 November
2008
G20 Summit Communique of 2008 - pursue improved tax information exchange and
transparency
02 April 2009
G20 Summit Communique of 2009 - commitment to publish a list of non-cooperative
jurisdictions (benchmark: international standard for exchange of information on tax)11
July 2010
President Obama signs Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act -
SEC registered extractive industry companies are required to report all payments
including taxes made to US Federal and foreign governments, by project and by country,
on an annual basis.
September 2010
The European Parliament requests that the European Commission consider the area of
Transparency and Accounting12
July 2011
ActionAid, FairFood, FairPensions "Tax responsibility: the business case for making tax a
corporate responsibility issue" report13
December 2011 EFRAG releases the discussion paper "Improving the Financial Reporting of Income Tax“
14
June 2012
The Council of the European Union initiate discussions on the proposals for EU Directives
on Transparency and Accounting15
July 2012 Tax Justice Network "Price of Offshore Revisited"
July 2012 Tax Justice Network "Tax us if you can 2nd Edition"

4. Tax avoidance debate timeline
(November 2012 – March 2013)
4
Date Events
November 2012
UK Public Account Committee require large US multinationals, Big 4 Heads of Tax/Tax
Policy to discuss their tax positions and practices
November 2012
Stephen McPartland MP & Christian Aid write to the the Hundred Group asking for support
for country by country reporting
13 December
2012
Citizens for Tax Justice "Fortune 500 Corporations Holding $1.6 Trillion in Profits Offshore"
report
February 2013 ActionAid "Tax responsibility: an investor guide" report
February 2013
EFRAG releases its feedback statement on 'Improving the Financial Reproting of Income
Tax' discussion paper
February 2013
Australian government instructs the Treasury to analyse whether greater reporting of taxes
paid by multinationals in every country is desirable
February 2013
UK government announces proposals to require potential suppliers under Government
contracts to confirm they have not been involved in certain tax avoidance arrangements
12 February 2013 OECD "Addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting" report
March 2013
HM Government issues its response to the Public Account Committee report and
recommendations on HMRC's performance, in particular in respect of the UK taxation
borne by multinationals

5. Tax avoidance debate timeline
(April 2013 – June 2014)
5
Date Events
April 2013 Ernst & Young "Tax transparency: Seizing the initiative" report
April 2013
The European Parliament agrees proposals that will require banking entities to report
profit before tax and payments to and from governments to be reported annually to the
European Commission as part of a range of proposals that form part of the EU's Capital
Requirements Directive (CRD) IV
April 2013
Australian Assistant Treasury releases a Treasury discussion paper proposing
disclosure by the Australian Taxation Office of the total income, taxable income, and
income tax payable of large corporate entities with total income of AUD 100m or more
with a proposed state date of 2013/14
April 2013
EU finalises drafting of Accounting Directive to require reporting of payments to
governments by EU extractive and logging entities
15 April 2013
HM Revenue and Customs Public Accounts Committee "Tax avoidance: the role of
large accountancy firms" report
07 May 2013 Confederation of British Industry "Seven Tax Planning Principles"
July 2013 Confederation of British Industry "Tax and British business: Making the case"
July 2013 EU Accounting Directive enters into force
19 July 2013 OECD "Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting" report
August 2013
Sustainalytics "It's Time to Call for More Responsibility - Multinational Corporations and
Tax Transparency: Issues for Responsible Investors" report
01 January 2014 CRD IV comes into effect in the UK
30 January 2014 OECD BEPS consultation documentation published
April 2014 KPMG "Country by country reporting - overview and comparison of the initiatives"
June 2014
OECD BEPS CFA (Committees on Fiscal Affairs) reviewed and approved a template for
Country by Country reporting

6. Tax avoidance debate timeline
(July 2014 – July 2015)
6
Date Events
01 July 2014
CRD IV: Report name, activities, geographic location, number of employees, turnover.
Global Systemically Important Institutions were required to disclose additional information
such as their pre-tax profit or loss, their taxes paid and any public subsidies received
confidentially.
05 August 2014
UK Government and EITI membership announced it will require oil, gas and mining
companies to publicly report their payments to governments in all countries in which they
operate
September 2014 OECD BEPS CFA final template finalised and published
16 September
2014
OECD releases first BEPS recommendations to G20 for international approach to combat
tax avoidance by multinationals
03 November
2014
ShareAction and Christian Aid "Seven questions investors should ask about the pitfalls of
corporate tax practice"
05 Novermber
2014
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: release of information about 300
multinationals given favourable tax treatment by Luxembourg ("LuxLeaks")
10 November
2014
ITUC "Global Union Call for Action for Pension Fund Responsible Tax Practices"
12 November
2014
Investor coalition (LAPFF, Batirente, RLAM, OFI AM, Tridos IM) on tax avoidance
Early 2015 Church of England Investment Board engagement on corporate tax planning
20 July 2015
EU Accounting Directive: EU member states have until 20 July 2015 latest to issue laws to
enforce its application