Navigating the Intersection of Tax and ESG

BDO in the Boardroom

Join BDO's Center for Corporate Governance Amy Rojik as she and her colleague Dan Fuller, Managing Partner Tax ESG Strategy and Services Leader, discuss opportunities to align the board’s oversight of ESG strategy with taxation considerations to be truly impactful in corporate decisions-making in this evolving area.

Key Takeaways:

• Where is the “T” in ESG? – Given that the majority of business transactions, including those involving ESG factors, have related tax impacts to consider, tax directors want to be included in the company’s evolving discussions around ESG and can be highly valuable to the board.
• For those companies outlining or updating their integration of tax into their ESG journey, three critical steps need to occur:
• Outline your approach to tax by defining regulatory compliance and interaction with tax authorities
• Establish a robust tax governance, control and risk management framework to support the company’s sustainability strategy
• Quantify and provide qualitative context around an organization’s total tax liability to meet demand for transparency

• From a governance and risk management lens, proper tax governance can ensure that there is appropriate oversight over an organization’s tax strategy and decisions, ensuring they align with overarching business objectives and stakeholder communications around tax reporting.
• Leverage the BDO ESG Tax Cipher to strengthen risk awareness, improve decision-making on risk mitigation, and increase transparency, accountability and strategy.
• Tax strategy can often be a “solution” in the ESG space – through credits, mitigation strategies, etc.

Resources:

• Navigating the Intersection of Tax & ESG
• BDO Center of Excellence