CONOCOPHILLIPS | Tax Transparency Report at CONOCOPHILLIPS
How other organisations have declared their voting intentions
| Organisation name | Declared voting intentions | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| CoreCommodity Management, LLC | For | |
| Rothschild & co Asset Management | For | |
| CANDRIAM | For | At Candriam, we believe that the demand formulated by this resolution is fully aligned with our Proxy Voting Policy as it pushes for more transparency by asking for a country-by-country tax report, which enables us to ensure our investee companies pay their fair amount of tax and assess whether they are involved in aggressive tax planning. Although ConocoPhillips argues that much of the asked information is already published, we believe that such a report is a negligible increased burden for the company and would only support the company’s argument that it is both collaborating with various tax authorities and a significant tax contributor in the jurisdictions it operates. Especially, providing figures on its contributions on a country basis would comfort the company’s statement as well as enable shareholders to assess the risks and opportunities arising from the company’s tax practices. Candriam considers that the country-by-country reporting of information does not lead to the disclosure of sufficiently sensitive or confidential information as to confer a competitive disadvantage as also specified by the 2018 Review of the EU Commission. We believe that reporting on tax practices and providing stakeholders with more granularity on the different company’s paid taxes should not be seen as a competitive disadvantage. In contrast, we see among the company’s peers that some whose reporting is in line with GRI Tax Standard benefited from such disclosure. Finally, since coming legislation will require ConocoPhillips to disclose such reporting, taking the lead on such reporting would help ConocoPhillips to gain more understanding from investors on its tax practices and on the challenges it faces. As such, we vote FOR this shareholder proposal. |
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