BAKGRUNN (fra kommisjonsforordningen)

(1) Pursuant to Article 48b(1) of Directive 2013/34/EU, Member States are to require undertakings to draw up, publish and make accessible a report on income tax information as regards the latter of the two consecutive financial years in each of which the consolidated revenue on their balance sheet date exceeded a total of EUR 750 000 000. 

(2) In accordance with Article 48b(3), undertakings or their affiliated undertakings that disclose certain reports in accordance with Article 89 of Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, are not covered by the obligation in Article 48b(1) of Directive 2013/34/EU. 

(3) In order to ensure that the reports referred to in Article 48b(1) of Directive 2013/34/EU are comparable, the Commission is to lay down in this Regulation a common template and electronic reporting formats, which should be machinereadable. Those templates and electronic reporting formats are to be applicable also in cases where an undertaking relies on a proxy governed by the law of a Member State to publish and make accessible its report on income tax information. 

(4) The common template provided for in this Regulation should facilitate the presentation of information to be disclosed in the report on income tax information pursuant to Article 48c, paragraphs 2 and 3 of Directive 2013/34/EU. In designing the template and reporting formats, progress in the area of digitisation and accessibility of information published by undertakings has been considered.

(5) XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) is a type of mark-up language which is mandated for the marking-up of annual financial reports of issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on EU regulated markets pursuant to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/815 on a single electronic reporting format . XHTML is also mandated for the sustainability statements which are to be drawn up by certain undertakings pursuant to Directive 2013/34/EU, as amended by Directive (EU) 2022/2464 as regards corporate sustainability reporting . Accordingly, in order to ensure consistency, the reports on income tax information referred to in Article 48b(1) of Directive 2013/34/EU should also be drawn up in XHTML format. 

(6) XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) is a machine-readable mark-up language which allows for the automated consumption of large amount of information, ensuring the accessibility and comparability of data. XBRL is well-established and in use in several jurisdictions. Inline XBRL is an open standard which allows for the embedding of XBRL markups in XHTML documents. Inline XBRL enables both human and machine readability. Accordingly, the reports on income tax information referred to in Article 48b(1) of Directive 2013/34/EU should be marked up using the Inline XBRL standard. 

(7) The use of XBRL markup language involves the application of a taxonomy to convert human-readable information to machine-readable information. In order to ensure the comparability and usability of data disclosed in the report on income tax information and presented using the common template and electronic reporting formats, such common taxonomy should specify the data elements to be marked up, having regards to other EU legislation related to country-by-country reporting. The hierarchy of elements and their appropriate data type has been made available to undertakings in a simple human-readable form in this Regulation. An undertaking should ensure that all the information required by the Directive and disclosed in the report is marked up, where it corresponds to elements set out in the core taxonomy. 

(8) Undertakings may draw up the report so that the information required is reported on the basis of the reporting instructions for tax purposes referred to in Section III, Parts B and C, of Annex III to Council Directive 2011/16/EU . In such a case, undertakings should ensure that the reporting instructions are consistently applied to all the information in the report. The reporting template should allow each undertaking to specify whether the report has been prepared on the basis of the reporting instructions referred to in Section III, Parts B and C, of Annex III to Council Directive 2011/16/EU. 

(9) An ultimate parent undertaking or standalone undertaking that is not governed by the law of a Member State and which makes accessible to the public a report in compliance with Article 48b(6) of Directive 2013/34/EU is not under an obligation to use the template and electronic formats set out in this Regulation. For the purposes of complying with Article 48b(6), an ultimate parent undertaking or standalone undertaking not governed by the law of a Member State should make its report accessible in a machine-readable format and identify therein a single subsidiary or branch governed by the law of a Member State that has published a report in that Member State. However, there is no impediment for an ultimate parent undertaking or standalone undertaking that is not governed by the law of a Member State and its identified single subsidiary or branch governed by the law of a Member State to draw up the report in accordance with the template and electronic formats laid down by this Regulation. 

(10) Pursuant to Article 48b(4) of Directive 2013/34/EU, certain medium-sized and large subsidiary undertakings that are governed by the national laws of a Member State and which are controlled by an ultimate parent undertaking that is not governed by the law of a Member State, where the consolidated revenue on its balance sheet date exceeded for each of the last two consecutive financial years a total of EUR 750 000 000, are required to publish and make accessible a report on income tax information concerning that ultimate parent undertaking as regards the latter of those two consecutive financial years. If the ultimate parent undertaking does not provide all the required information, those subsidiaries are also required to draw up, publish and make accessible a statement indicating that their ultimate parent undertaking did not make the necessary information available. When drawing up such reports and statements, those subsidiaries should not be covered by the obligation to use the common template and electronic reporting format set out in this Regulation. 

(11) Pursuant to Article 48b(5) of Directive 2013/34/EU, certain branches opened in a Member State by undertakings that are not governed by the law of a Member State are required to publish and make accessible a report on income tax information concerning the ultimate parent undertaking or the standalone undertaking referred to in Article 48b(5), sixth subparagraph, point (a) of that Directive, as regards the latter of the last two consecutive financial years. If the ultimate parent or standalone undertaking does not provide all the required information, those branches are also to be required to draw up, publish and make accessible a statement indicating that the ultimate parent or standalone undertaking did not make the necessary information available. When drawing up such reports and statements, those branches should not be covered by the obligation to use the common template and electronic reporting format set out in this Regulation. 

(12) Pursuant to Article 48g of Directive 2013/34/EU, Member States are to ensure that that Directive’s requirements to report on income tax information apply, at the latest, from the commencement date of the first financial year starting on or after 22 June 2024. In order to provide enough time for undertakings to implement the common template and electronic reporting formats referred to in Article 48c(4) of Directive 2013/34/EU and laid down in this Regulation, a transition period is necessary. 

(13) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Accounting Directive Committee.