As agreed upon in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other Human Rights Conventions states have the duty to devote the “maximum available resources” to ensure the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. Therefore, human rights obligations should not only guide states’ expenditure practices but also their revenue raising practices, according to the report.
This means for example critically examining the benefit of tax holidays for foreign companies or equipping tax authorities with the necessary financial and personnel capacities. On the other hand, states also have the obligation to ensure that their tax laws and structures do not erode the national tax base of other states and hamper their ability to exert progressive tax rates. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur explicitly demands high-income states to take responsibility for their failure to prevent tax abuse and illicit financial flows.
Subsequently, the report stresses the importance of international cooperation for the implementation of an adequate global framework to tackle tax evasion, transfer mispricing and suchlike and formulates recommendations like the introduction of system of information exchange between tax authorities, country-by-country reporting standards in extractive industries, the full disclosure of beneficial ownership through national public registers and the upgrade of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters to intergovernmental status.