Coronavirus Menaces Tax Audits, SEC Filings for Multinationals

Travel disruptions and canceled meetings are just the first wave of coronavirus impact on financial operations of multinational companies.

Businesses will increasingly be challenged to meet tax deadlines, audit inventory in far-flung locations, and conduct due diligence for mergers. Even the filing of quarterly financial results is threatened.

“If this ends in two weeks, it’s not an issue,” Friedemann Thomma, chair of the international tax practice at Venable LLP in California, said. “But if it’s still going in six months, we’ve got a massive problem.” Companies might have little choice but to ask tax authorities for more time to compute ...