Are we serious about tax risk management?
15 April 2015
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Posted by: Author: Johan van der Walt
 Author: Johan van der Walt (KPMG) Johan van der Walt argues that Tax Risk Management in South Africa
should be given space to grow and become part of best practice in its own
right, as it has in other tax jurisdictions. The
final day of the 2014 SAIT Tax Indaba focused on Tax Risk Management (TRM). The
session was well-attended. Numerous South African flagship companies’ Group Tax
managers were there - and they participated enthusiastically. Day
Five of the 2015 Tax Indaba (during June 2015) will again be dedicated to TRM,
including how to make tax governance part of the overall corporate governance process. On the
face of it, it would appear that there is a healthy interest in TRM
developments in the South African context. But, how serious is South Africa really
about TRM? A
recent press report entitled "Tax issues
take back seat on SA boards"[i] indicated that 60 per cent of directors say
that their boards had not discussed public perceptions regarding their
company’s effective tax rate or their use of tax havens. This statistic is mind-boggling
when taking into account, the reputational carnage so-called "aggressive tax
planning” recently inflicted on Starbucks, Google, Amazon, and others. This is
even more perplexing when considering the widely-publicised Base Erosion and
Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiatives currently actioned by the OECD. The
Tax Administration Act, No. 28 of 2011 specifically provides that a taxpayer can
be selected for audit by SARS on a random basis or on "a risk assessment basis”[ii]. Audit selection on the
basis of risk propensity is accepted globally[iii]. What
is not clear is exactly how, and to what extent, a company’s TRM (or lack
thereof) feeds into SARS’ risk-profiling criteria?[iv]; In a
2014 SARS’ presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance it was stated that
19 568 "in-depth audits” had been carried out[v]. The question is, however,
whether a company practising sophisticated TRM would have been treated any
differently by SARS during such an audit, in other words, how does TRM, embedded
as part of the company’s corporate governance processes, actually benefit a company
when SARS, firstly, risk-profiles, and secondly, undertakes an in-depth audit
of that company? The real issue is: to what extent is TRM a differentiator for SARS,
if any? In its
latest Strategic Plan[vi], SARS does indicate that
it intends migrating from a "uniform
service offering” to a "differentiated
service offering (based on compliance behaviour and segment”). This could
mean that, in the future, SARS might be more nuanced in its risk profiling, and
auditing, of corporate taxpayers by differentiating (for example, by giving
"credit” through a light touch audit approach[vii]) where the company has
sophisticated TRM in place as part of its corporate governance regime. Unfortunately,
international trends suggest that South Africa might be lagging in the TRM
space. Why is TRM important? The
importance of TRM has been explained as follows[viii]: "The need to address risk management at
all in a tax context arises due to the inherent indeterminacy of tax laws,
which give rise to uncertainty around their interpretation. Where there is
uncertainty, there is a risk to be quantified and managed, which ultimately
links risk management with degrees of tax aggressiveness and attitudes to the
law.” What is the purpose of TRM? It
should be pointed out that: "Tax risk management is not necessarily
about minimising tax risk but rather about a determination of the level of risk
that is acceptable to the particular corporation and putting in place processes
and procedures that ensure tax risks do not exceed acceptable levels.”[ix] It is
for this reason that TRM invariably addresses the particular corporate
taxpayer’s so-called "tax risk appetite”. The global push to embed TRM as part of overall
corporate governance[x] Globally,
revenue authorities have signalled their expectation that large corporates "…will strengthen their corporate governance
in the area of tax-risk management.” It is
stated that: "It is possible to manage
tax risk in a global business environment by using leading practices that
address both the needs of business and the expectations of tax administrators.
The goal is to achieve a level of certainty about tax positions, tax reporting
and tax planning that aligns with the principles of good corporate governance
and that will satisfy the concerns of both parties.”[xi] An
interesting point is made, namely that TRM should not be undertaken purely to
satisfy the expectations of revenue authorities, but also because TRM could
bring competitive advantages: "Those that
succeed will incorporate tax risk management into the core of their business
decisions – from the boardroom and audit committee agendas to the operations on
the ground in various tax jurisdictions. Getting global tax risk management
wrong can mean material ,financial and reputational damage. Getting it right
can yield significant competitive advantages.”[xii] In
light of the above, it is noteworthy that the leading South African Corporate
Governance seminar series[xiii] in its advertisements
specifically mentions, e.g. "IT
governance and how it targets technology risks”. But, it is totally silent
on tax governance and how that could mitigate tax risks? There
are, however, South African corporates that are progressive when it comes to TRM.
SABMiller plc, in June 2014, published a document[xiv]"Our approach to tax”. The foreword mentions, "In this report we include disclosures about our tax contribution, as
well as some further explanation about tax management.” The document spells out SABMiller’s approach
to, in other words, the entity’s tax governance, tax responsibilities,
operations in tax havens, meetings with tax authorities (in their words, "… our dealings with revenue authorities
should be based on respect and trust”), tax disclosures, etcetera. Another
example is Vodacom. Its parent Vodafone has a very detailed document on "Tax risk management strategy” which is
publicly available online.
The Australian approach to TRM It is
known that the SARS tax compliance model has been adapted from that of the
Australian Tax Office ("ATO”). So
what can we learn from down-under when it comes to TRM and embedding TRM processes
and procedures into the corporate governance regime? And are there any
benefits? How does the ATO support TRM by its corporate taxpayers? - The ATO expects robust TRM from corporates[xv]
The ATO states: "Managing your tax risk well is core to good corporate governance,
particularly if you are operating in international markets. We work with you to
build an environment that fosters good corporate governance and supports your
tax-risk management.”[xvi]
The ATO sees TRM as a multi-role function
within any large corporate taxpayer’s portfolio. The role of the corporate
board, external scrutineers and the ATO’s own responsibility are set out in
detail within a conceptual model (the "Tax
operating model”).
- TRM is evaluated as part of the ATO’s
risk-profiling of corporate taxpayers
The approach of the ATO is that "… in carrying out their risk review of
large corporate taxpayers, the tax risk management practices of the taxpayer
will be a consideration in the determination of the level of risk to the
revenue and the extent to which that taxpayer will be subject to ATO scrutiny.”[xvii]
In carrying out its compliance
interventions, the ATO follows the procedures outlined in a detailed manual
which is publicly available. In the run up to an audit, the ATO would first
develop a "risk hypothesis” regarding
the specific taxpayer. The corporate taxpayer’s TRM practices (or, lack
thereof) would feature as part of such risk evaluation. To the extent that a corporate taxpayer
practices sound TRM, it would enable a revenue authority to apply a "light
touch” compliance/audit approach to that particular taxpayer. This should enable
the revenue authority to redirect limited resources to high risk areas, or alternatively
to those corporate taxpayers that do little, or no, TRM. This is what the HMRC
is doing in the UK.[xviii]
- The ATO makes space for proper TRM
Because the ATO demands robust TRM from
Australian corporate taxpayers, it has also taken a conscious decision to allow
those taxpayers room to develop and implement proper TRM practices.
The applicable ATO Practice Statement[xix] encourages TRM in the
following manner: - There is recognition that managing a company’s
tax risk compliance requires that stakeholders should be able to robustly
interrogate tax risks. Therefore: "The
ATO recognises that those responsible for managing a company’s tax compliance
risks need to be able to undertake broad ranging and candid communications.
Those persons would include the company’s employees, its external advisors and
its directors undertaking governance of tax compliance issues.”[xx]
- To encourage TRM, and create space for same,
the ATO has developed the concept of "Corporate
board documents on tax compliance risk”. Although the ATO has the statutory
power to request access to most documents, it has formulated a safe-habour and has
given an undertaking not to access the above-mentioned class of documents (unless
there are "exceptional circumstances”);
- Corporate board documents on tax compliance
risk qualifying for the safe-habour protection are those:
- Created by advisors (being suitably qualified
in-house or independent advisors);
- Created for the sole purpose of providing
advice or opinion to the board of directors (including properly constituted
sub-committees) on tax compliance risk and their likelihood and impact; and
- That address tax risks associated with major
transactions and arrangements and / or tax risks arising from corporate systems
and processes.
- The above-mentioned documents are therefore
off-limits to the ATO, enabling TRM to take place unhindered, in other words,
without the ATO accessing the TRM documentation produced solely for purposes of
the company’s tax governance processes;
- The safe-habour in relation to the
above-mentioned document class operates alongside, and in addition to, the
protections of legal professional privilege[xxi] and the so-called
"Accountants’ concession" (which limits access to auditors’ working
papers)[xxii];
- The exceptional circumstances that allow the
ATO to gain access to the Corporate board
documents on tax compliance risk, are:
- The taxpayer’s non-cooperation with the ATO in regard
to information-gathering;
- Important risk review or audit information
cannot be sufficiently established from the taxpayer’s source documents and
other enquiries;
- The taxpayer has a history of serious non-compliance
(for example, fraud ,evasion and/or persistent avoidance).
Clearly
the ATO acknowledges that its expectation (that corporate taxpayers should
practise robust TRM) is only achievable when the revenue authority itself
respects, and actually creates, the space for TRM to be fostered and embedded as
part of the total corporate governance regime. What is the state of TRM in South Africa
and what is the SARS approach? Reference
has already been made to the fact that certain South African corporate
taxpayers practise sophisticated TRM. They are on par with international best
practice in this regard. It
would appear, therefore, that corporate taxpayers in South Africa are willing to
commit the necessary resources towards TRM. But,
are local corporate taxpayers being "rewarded” or "encouraged” by SARS to initiate
and invest in TRM (for example, through risk-profiling differentiation and / or
a "light touch” audit approach like in the UK?) It is
difficult to answer the question above. There is scant information available on
how SARS sees the trade-off / linkages between TRM and its own risk-profiling /
audit approach in respect of corporate taxpayers.[xxiii] Unfortunately
South Africa seems to be heading in the wrong direction - of late SARS has been
requesting[xxiv] detailed information and
documentation in relation to "…executive
meeting board packs, minutes, related correspondence and presentations”,
including full access to Audit Committee and Tax Committee packs.
SARS’
push for the above-mentioned information and documentation has persisted despite
claims of legal professional privilege in respect of large portions of the
so-called Tax Committee packs. As can be expected, said packs contain, inter alia, opinions from internal and /
or external advisers – the very purpose of which was to assist Tax Committee
members to properly evaluate, and manage, potential tax risks.
Unfortunately,
there is some disconnect between the expectation that South Africa corporate
taxpayers should follow international best practice when it comes to TRM, and the
manner in which SARS is exercising its information-gathering powers under the
Tax Administration Act. The
reality is that the very documents which are crucial for robust tax governance
(and which are required by directors and Tax Committee members to discharge
their statutory governance obligations) have now become sought-after by the
revenue authority. TRM documentation is perceived as some short-cut mechanism to
unearth and detect so-called hidden "tax risks”. There
is little doubt that, under the Australian dispensation and the safe-habour
that applies in relation to Corporate
board documents on tax compliance risk, the above-mentioned documentation would
be inaccessible to the ATO (bar the carve-out relating to "exceptional
circumstances”). Conclusion For
now, TRM appears to be reasonably "well
and alive and living in South Africa”. The
attention TRM is attracting at the upcoming Tax Indaba with a full-day stream
bears testimony that TRM is no longer a "nice
to have” – it has become an imperative. And this is acknowledged by South
African corporate taxpayers. But, for
TRM to flourish and come into its own in South Africa, space must be created
for it to grow. That means that options like the Australian safe-harbour for
tax governance documentation should be considered (and hopefully adopted)
locally. It will mean that SARS should desist from information requests that
undermine TRM, especially in relation to tax risk information found in Board,
Audit Committee and Tax Committee packs. An over-broad
push by any revenue authority for tax corporate governance documentation invariably
runs the risk that Tax Committee packs will become "leaner”, written
submissions / opinions to the Tax Committee substituted with oral feedback and tax
risks discussions happening in hushed tones in dark corners. That will
benefit nobody. It will merely drive TRM underground and ultimately, into
oblivion. In
future SARS will have to do more, with less. SARS’ 2014/ 15 to 2016/17 Resource
Plan[xxv] shows that both money and
human resources will be tight (this is indicated for example by the fact that
the total SARS head count actually shows a loss of a 1 000 staff leading
into 2016/17). To the
extent that SARS, when risk-profiling and auditing corporate taxpayers, could
rely on the TRM and tax governance (embedded as part of a corporate taxpayer’s
overall corporate governance processes), should allow SARS to refocus limited
resources towards areas in the South African economy where evasion and non-compliance
is really rife – as opposed to indiscriminately throwing resources at corporate
taxpayers with good TRM and tax governance. In this way SARS gets "more bang for its buck” and corporate
taxpayers are incentivised to up their TRM game. Tax
Risk Management should be encouraged and given adequate space – South Africa
needs more of it, not less.
i BDlive 19 January 2015, Amanda Visser, Tax issues take back seat on SA boards; ii Section 40; iii IBFD, "Tax Risk Management From Risk to Opportunity”, at p. 117: "The approach to compliance outlined above is often used in conjunction with risk assessment, involving the risk profiling of taxpayers, using risk indicators (risk rating) in order to decide where to focus resources to achieve maximum compliance with what is available.” iv A search for "Tax Risk Management” on the SARS website search facility did not produce any results; v Presentation by SARS to the Standing Committee of Finance, 1 July 2014, "2014/15 – 2018/19 Strategic Plan & 2014/15 Annual Performance Plan”; vi SARS, 2014/15 – 2018/19 Strategic Plan, at p. 20; vii The "light touch” approach is practiced by the UK’s HMRC, where appropriate. Judith Freedman, Geoffrey Loomer and John Vella, "Corporate Tax Risk and Tax Avoidance; New Approaches”, state: "LBS is awarded a risk rating, which determines the volume of HMRC’s interventions in the company’s affairs and the nature of the working relationship between the two. In essence, a light touch is adopted for low risk companies, thus releasing resources that can be directed towards higher risk companies”; viii Emer Mulligan and Lynne Oates, "Tax Risk Management: Evidence from the US”. ix Catriona Lavermicocca, "Managing tax risk and compliance”, the tax specialist, Volume 13, No 2, October 2009, at p. 69; x The OECD has been active in pushing the TRM agenda. Refer e.g. the publication by its Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, "Information Note General Administrative Principles: Corporate governance and tax risk management”, published in July 2009; xi Fred O’Riordan, "Governance and risk in a global economy”, CAmagazine.com, June-July 2011 edition; xii "Governance and risk in a global economy”; xiii See, for example, "The FINAL 2014 Corporate Governance Update Seminar”, 17th October 2014, Johannesburg presented by Professor Mervyn King (in BusinessDay Investors Monthly, August 2014 edition); xiv SABMiller plc, "Tax and Development 2014”, published June 2014. Other examples of similar documents are Diageo, "TAX Global Policy”, Unilever, "Our approach to tax” which are all publicly available; xv Australian Tax Office, "Large business and tax compliance publication”, 14 October 2014 version, available on the ATO website; xvi "Large business and tax compliance publication” at par. 3 under "Good tax governance – Sound tax-risk management processes”; xvii Catriona Lavermicocca, "Tax Risk Management Practices and their Impact on Tax Compliance Behaviour – The Views of Tax Executives from Large Australian Companies”, eJournal of Tax Research, Volume 9, Number 1, July 2011, p. 89 – 115, at p. 90; xviii Refer footnote vii above. xix ATO Practice Statement Law Administration, "PS LA 2004/14", available on the ATO website as well as the ATO's publication, "Our approach to information gathering", November 2013 version (available on the ATO website), at p42; xx "PS LA 2004/14", at par. 11; xxi "Our approach to information gathering", at p. 36 xxii "Our approach to information gathering", at p. 40 xxiii See for example, a recent MComm (Tax) dissertation dealing with TRM in the South African context. There is no reference to SARS's view on TRM and whether TRM plays any role / influences its risk-profiling of SA corporate taxpayers. L. Jansen van Rensburg, "Tax Risk Management: a framework for implementation", MComm dissertation, University of Pretoria, submitted on 31 August 2012; xxiv In terms of section 46 of the Tax Administration Act, 2012. xxv SARS, "2014/15 - 2018/19 Strategic Plan", at p42; This article first appeared on the March/April 2015 edition on Tax Talk. Please click here to complete the quiz.
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