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> Any publicly-traded company like Google would be immediately sued for dereliction of duty to shareholders to minimizing taxes There is no such duty in law. W
by SixSigma 11y ago
> Any publicly-traded company like Google would be immediately sued for dereliction of duty to shareholders to minimizing taxes
There is no such duty in law. What they have to do is operate in accordance with the mission statement in the annual report and this is decided by the shareholders at the AGM.
If this said "we will pay maximum taxes in host countries where we operate" then shareholders could sue them for not doing that.
- robryan 11y agoAre their any good examples of large multinationals who have taken a stance similar to this?
- SixSigma 11y agoI don't know about the "we pay taxes" specifically. But there are examples like Google and Facebook "don't expect any dividends" [1] Then there are a whole host of Corporate Social Responsibly activities [2] where companies promise to spend income on social programmes and other nice things. CSR is a growing movement. You can participate in ISO 26000 [3] which has a section on involvement in the community and other activities which potentially eat into raw profit. Companies can also get certified as SA 8000 [4] compliant but that is aimed more at the treatment of workers. [1] http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/11/06/why-google-doesnt-care-if-you-want-a-dividend.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/11/06/why-google-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibilit... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_26000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_26000 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SA8000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SA8000