Ahead of the Brookfield Corporation (TSX: BN) annual meeting of shareholders on June 9, 2023, the BCGEU has released a proxy memo about its shareholder proposal which requests that Brookfield release a tax transparency report prepared in consideration of the indicators and guidelines set forth in the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Tax Standard.

There has been increased government and community scrutiny on whether corporations are paying their “fair share” of tax and contributing to societies where profits are earned. The OECD estimates revenue losses from profit shifting by corporations of US$100 – 240 billion annually. The PRI, representing investors with $89 trillion AUM, argues that tax avoidance is a key driver of global inequality.

A 2017 Toronto Star investigation found that Brookfield was among the worst tax offenders of all Canadian corporations. It had the lowest effective tax rate at 6.7%. Brookfield’s effective tax rate was lower than Canada’s five big banks whose tax rates were all between 13.4% and 17.8%.[1]

A 2022 report from Canadians for Tax Fairness examined the tax gap of 123 of Canada’s largest corporations, the difference between taxes paid and what would have been paid if the statutory tax rate were applied to profits. The report found that Brookfield had the largest tax gap between 2017 and 2021, avoiding $3.5 billion in tax in 2021. While there are legitimate reasons why the rate of tax payments would be lower than the official tax rate, Brookfield’s exceptional and consistently low rates of tax are worthy of greater scrutiny.

BCGEU encourages investors to vote FOR this proposal.

Download Brookfield Proxy Memo PDF

Download Brookfield Shareholder Proposal