Political and tax policy advocacy
When governments look to develop or change tax policy, they invariably seek input from a wide range of interested stakeholders, including business advocacy groups and a large number of individual companies.
Vodafone regularly engages with governments – typically through public consultation processes or in our role as a member of an industry group – to provide our perspective on how best to balance the need for government revenues from taxation against the need to ensure sustainable investment.
We are active participants in:
- The European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT) on finance and taxation and in 2018 we participated in a dialogue with the EU on corporate taxation
- The tax policy committee of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO)
- GSMA - which represents the mobile industry when looking at emerging issues across the EU. We have also shared our insights as a multinational operator with the European Commission Taxation and Customs Union Directorate-General (TAXUD).We have many local engagements, for example in our local markets we
- Actively participate in the tax policy committees of Assotelecomunicazoni and the Confindustria Digitale in Italy
- Contribute to the tax committees of telecommunications industry organisations in Germany that work on legal developments of tax policy and on tax administration, including the interpretation and application of tax law
- Are a leading industry representative in the UK government’s business forum on Business Tax and Competitiveness that aims to establish a more competitive UK tax system
- Are a member of the Cellular Operators Association of India
- Are members of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) tax committee which engages on a wide range of tax issues
- Are active participants in various industry and economic forums in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the support of the GSMA and also frequently participate in tax policy discussions at specific tax conferences in Africa where both revenue authorities and corporates are represented.
We welcome engagement with civil society groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and corporate tax activists, many of whose insights have shaped this Report over the years. In particular, we are grateful to Oxfam and Action Aid for their detailed feedback and observations over the years.
During 2018, we also contributed to work undertaken by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) on the development of a draft GRI standard on tax reporting and payments to governments. We are a founding member of the B Team’s Responsible Tax Principles and an active contributor to those principles, which are designed to improve the way businesses consider tax as part of their financial approach.
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