Action 11 BEPS data analysis

The adverse fiscal and economic impacts of tax avoidance strategies have been the focus of the BEPS Project since its beginning in 2013. In 2015, OECD research estimated that the cost of tax avoidance by multinational enterprises (MNEs) ranged from USD 100 to $240 billion, which is equivalent to 4-10% of global corporate income tax (CIT) revenues. In addition to significant revenue losses, BEPS also causes other adverse economic effects, such as tilting the playing field in favour of tax-aggressive MNEs, exacerbating the corporate debt bias, distorting the location of highly mobile, intangible assets and misdirecting foreign direct investment.

The 2015 Action 11 report Measuring and Monitoring BEPS highlighted that the lack of quality data on corporate taxation has been a major limitation to measuring the fiscal and economic effects of tax avoidance as well as any efforts to measure the impact of the implementation measures agreed as part of the BEPS Project. Increasing the quality of the data and the analytical tools available, through the ongoing work under Action 11, is crucial in being able measure the impact of tax avoidance and the effect of the implementation of the BEPS measures in curbing these practices.

Measuring the impact and scale of BEPS activities and the effect of the implementation of the BEPS measures are important components of the ongoing work of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS. Such measurement and monitoring is necessary to inform both policymakers and taxpayers of the effectiveness of the BEPS measures and the extent to which BEPS issues continue to exist.

As part of the ongoing work under Action 11, the Inclusive Framework is developing new and enhanced datasets and analytical tools that can assist in measuring and monitoring the fiscal and economic impacts of tax avoidance and the effects of the implementation of the BEPS measures.

In particular, the Inclusive Framework is working to improve the quality and expand the range of information available to analyse BEPS. The Corporate Tax Statistics database, which was first launched in January 2019, has assembled a variety of data relevant to the analysis of BEPS and of corporate taxation more generally. In developing the database, the OECD worked closely with members of the Inclusive Framework and other jurisdictions willing to participate, and as a result, it includes information for more than 100 jurisdictions.

The second edition of Corporate Tax Statistics (OECD 2020) included the first aggregated and anonymised statistics prepared from data received on Action 13 Country-by-Country Reports (CbCRs) in 2020. The third edition (OECD 2021) expanded these CbCR statistics, which now cover 38 jurisdictions and 95% of all CbCRs filed and also included new indicators of the impact of expenditure-based tax incentives on R&D. The coverage of this data series has continued to expand with several new jurisdictions appearing in the database for the first time in the fourth edition (OECD 2022).