Waarom Shell streeft naar transparantie

Title: “Shell is committed to transparency” 

Duration: 03:21

Description: Alan McLean, Executive Vice President Taxation, on the importance of begin transparent and Shells tax strategy.

“Shell is committed to transparency” – Transcript

[Question]

Why is Shell publishing this report?

[Alan McLean]

Shell is committed to transparency. We think it is the best way that we can help people understand the kind of company we are, the things we do and how we do them. So it is an important part of our engagement with broader society. We have been committed to transparency for many years and for a long journey of about fifteen years now and we have been producing more and more information about the taxes we pay. This is a new step, an exciting new step I think and a progressive step taking us into the next level of that transparency.

[Question]

Why does Shell support the B Team Responsible Tax Principles?

[Alan McLean]

We got together with a number of other leading companies to work on a set of principles for responsible tax, covering the way that we comply with the law, the way that we engage with tax authorities around the world and particularly our approach on being transparent about that. So back in 2018 Shell was one of the first companies to sign up to these principles and I was very pleased to be one of those early adopters of the B Team Principles and we have been working with those principles since then and this culminated in this first approach, this first new publication on our approach to taxes.

[Question]

Wat can you say about Shell’s tax strategy?

[Alan McLean]

Our tax strategy of course like many other strategies in Shell supports Shells overall strategic ambitions. So we in tax help the company be a world class investment case. We help the company thrive through the energy transition and we also help particularly to improve and strengthen our societal license to operate. And so when we think about taxes we think about them in the context of all three of those ambitions. And we make sure that we balance across all three of the ambitions.

[Question]

Shell also has presence in so called tax havens?

[Alan McLean]

Shell has activities in 99 countries and locations around the world. And each of those locations the government will establish a tax system which is appropriate to the kind of economy that they want to create, the investment they want to attract, the quality of the jobs they want to generate. And we will of course than pay taxes according with the laws that they create. In some countries relatively higher, in some countries relatively lower. Overall in 2018 we payed over 10 billion in corporate income tax and almost 6 billion in royalties so 16 billion in total. And of course we also collected another 48 billion dollars worth of taxes for governments around the world. And if you look at the corporate income tax side of that, than of average our effective rate of tax on all of the profits we own and all of the locations where we are active, was 33%. That is a very high rate compared to many other companies and also very high when you look at it in comparison with the average of the OECD countries effective statutory tax rates.

[Question]

Why does Shell use tax incentives?

[Alan McLean]

Well governments make tax incentives available where again they try to attract a particular kind of activity into their country. And where those tax incentives meet their requirements that are set out in our responsible tax principles. Than we’re happy to use those incentives. Because in that way we’re actually helping the government deliver on what it is trying to achieve for its country.