ESG Push for Corporate Tax Disclosures Gaining Momentum in U.S.

Corporate tax departments are facing an under-the-radar element of ESG-focused activist investing that’s gaining traction and would more directly affect bottom lines than the addition of women and minorities to corporate boards or publishing environmental impact reports.

Environmental, social, and governance-oriented investors, and members of Congress, want large public companies to disclose where they shift their profits and how much they pay in taxes, and to cut back on aggressive tax planning. They’re facing resistance and a response seen by some critics as little more than marketing in an attempt to counter a White House-promoted narrative that America’s biggest corporations ...