SEC And IRS Explore More Company Tax Reporting

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

05 May 2006

Christopher Cox, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, has revealed that he and IRS chief Mark Everson have informally discussed the idea that company tax information should be released alongside earnings data.

Addressing an audience at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, Cox stated that he and Everson had mulled the idea over lunch as a way of improving the quality of corporate data available to investors, while addressing the mismatch between what companies report to the SEC and what they tell the IRS.

However, he was keen to stress that there are no proposals on the issue in the pipeline, calling the dialogue between himself and Everson "intellectual R&D".

"The object has to be clarity, so we want to make sure that whatever we do in this respect adds clarity, and doesn't just add a lot more facts and details that creates a problem," Cox explained.

While Everson has previously floated the idea of side-by-side company reporting, such a proposal is likely to be hugely controversial, and raise questions of taxpayer privacy. Currently, the US Tax Code prohibits the disclosure of taxpayer information, except in very limited circumstances.

Nonetheless, Everson believes that the full or partial release of corporate taxpayer data would likely improve compliance.

"I believe this idea merits debate," he stated in a National Press Club speech in March.

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