This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado) reviews a new work by Hans Gribnau (Tilburg L. Sch.), Developing Sustainable Corporate Tax Governance, in A Journey Through European and International Taxation 125 (2024) (posted to SSRN on February 3, 2026).

Taxes are embedded—tacitly and explicitly—in current debates about sustainable economic development. In Developing Sustainable Corporate Tax Governance, Hans Gribnau surveys, from a European perspective, the recent landscape of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to promote environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. Gribnau argues that a complete view of sustainable corporate governance requires an understanding of tax governance, measured by whether businesses pay their “fair share of taxes” and how transparent those businesses are about their taxpaying and tax planning activities (125). Although finding a “T” in ESG isn’t unprecedented, Gribnau advances the debate through masterful positive and normative analysis within the context of the twenty-first century’s major crises. And, of course, much has changed in the two years since Gribnau’s book chapter was published.

For Gribnau, today’s winter of discontent is fueled by well-traveled factors, including globalization, privatization, and a shortening of economic and political actors’ time horizons. For each of these phenomena, tax law and policy play a central role. As globalization divides polities into elite “haves” and disenchanted “have nots,” tax systems—often ill-equipped to combat tax avoidance and evasion—tend to amplify wealth and income disparities, especially in the eyes of the dispossessed. Similarly, enfeebled public budgets encourage greater reliance on the private sector for the infrastructure of civil society. In a vicious circle, the affluent turn to privatized services, while anemic public services undermine democratic calls for greater revenue. Finally, the actions of corporate and elite actors may implicate high discount rates that favor short-term profit-taking over long-term sustainability—a phenomenon that taxes may exacerbate. These factors seed the clouds of ideological extremism, demagoguery, and social fragmentation; the sun, at least in part, may be tax reform.

Indeed, solutions to these global problems may rely on both the revenue-raising and regulatory functions of taxation. Multilateral tax efforts, such as the OECD’s BEPS project, may combat globalization’s negative effects by disincentivizing the delinking of financial and real activities. Greater tax revenue allows governments to spend on (and directly shape) sustainable development, while increased reliance on tax expenditures (and other indirect mechanisms) may yield pernicious “upwards” redistribution (129). Most importantly, Gribnau finds that multinational corporations “have a special responsibility for the integrity of the tax system” that is inconsistent with conventional “[t]ax minimization” strategies (133). This responsibility appears in the substantive contributions that multinationals make to various jurisdictions’ treasuries, as well as the “procedural” value of voluntary or mandatory transparency that “enables external stakeholders to hold a company to account” for tax matters (134). Although the content of these substantive and procedural prongs may prove contested, both are necessary for “good tax governance” (135). Gribnau discusses various European examples.

Taxation has a further advantage as an increasingly established component of ESG initiatives. While critics cite difficulties in quantifying businesses’ gains or deficiencies along traditional ESG metrics, taxes are inherently numeric. Measurement isn’t really a legitimate critique of reforms aimed at tax governance. Moreover, the quantitative nature of tax computations implies that policymakers should give more weight to the “procedural” transparency prong of good tax governance. The more stakeholders see into multinationals’ tax positions, the better everyone can understand whether these businesses contribute their “fair share” fiscally.

Gribnau’s analysis also draws tax systems’ substantive operations into tension with their expressive value. Global populism (and its discontents) have particular (and perhaps inconsistent) views of how the wealthy and corporations should be taxed. By delineating substantive payments from procedural transparency, Gribnau gives space for polarized politics while emphasizing the infrastructure necessary for democratic deliberation. But corporate taxation carries special weight in populist rhetoric on the left and right. A robust headline corporate tax rate, for example, may create meaning for some people, even if tax expenditures (oriented towards sustainability!) eat away at revenue collections. More generally, there’s a lot of nuance that goes into determining businesses’ “fair share” for tax purposes.

Finally, Gribnau’s framework has significant implications for recent shifts in the United States away from public-facing ESG efforts. While these shifts may represent a change in values, observers have argued that American multinationals are favoring quiet sustainability over more overt actions. To the extent that external stakeholders know less about companies’ ESG efforts, tax governance—and its emphasis on transparency—gives an opportunity to learn more. More broadly, transparency may leverage taxation’s history of “splendid isolation” to reveal how businesses move through the world, even as the vicissitudes of popular opinion favor and disfavor other forms of reporting (131). From this perspective, it’s not just that ESG has a “T.” Instead, tax transparency has the potential to inform all kinds of social movements.

Overall, Gribnau’s chapter is a magisterial contribution to the literature connecting corporate governance and taxation. Gribnau’s arguments situate these topics in a transatlantic context, and his chapter provides fertile ground for considering these issues in the current moment of political change. Legal scholars and policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic should find Gribnau’s piece compelling.

Here’s the rest of this week’s SSRN Tax Roundup:

Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan) & Lior Frank (U. Haifa), Progressive Tax Rates as a Response to Algorithmic Tacit Collusion, 120 Tax Notes Int’l. 2007 (Dec. 22, 2025)

Jorge A. Arroyo (Independent), The Controlled U.S. Corporate Footprint by Owner Jurisdiction: Evidence from IRS SOI Data (2002–2022) (Dec. 31, 2025)

Vishal P. Baloria (U. Conn.), Trent Krupa (Penn. St. U., Smeal C. Bus.) & Richard Mergenthaler (Penn St. U., Smeal C. Bus.), Is the SEC’s Bark Worse than the IRS’s Bite? Watchdog Regulators and Capital Investment Thresholds (Jan. 19, 2026)

Marcelo Bergolo (U. Republica, Inst. Econ.), Martin Leites (U. Republica, Inst. Econ.), Ricardo Perez-Truglia (UCLA) & Matias Strehl (U. Republica, Inst. Econ.), What Makes a Tax Evader?, CESifo Working Paper No. 12432 (Feb. 4, 2026)

Dong Joon Choi (Chungnam Nat’l U.), Squeezing the Balloon: Strategic Substitution Between Technical and Brand-Based Tax Avoidance (Jan. 21, 2026)

Steven Dean (Boston U.), Introduction, in Racial Capitalism and International Tax Law: The Story of Global Jim Crow (2025)

Somtochukwu Anthony Egwu (Godfrey Okoye U.) & Chigozie I. Nnamdi-Eze (Godfrey Okoye U.), Predictive AI for Tax Evasion Detection: Balancing Privacy Rights and Regulatory Enforcement (June 10, 2025)

Yuval Feldman (Bar-Ilan U.), Can Corporations Be Trusted? Voluntary Compliance and the Limits of Non-Coercive Business Regulation, Bar Ilan U. Faculty L. Rsch. Paper No. 6174323 (Feb. 3, 2026)

Brian D. Galle (UC Berkeley), How to Tax the Ultrarich (Jan. 26, 2026)

Rui Ge (Shenzhen U.), Junqiang Ke (Central U. Fin. Econ., Sch. Acct.), Zhiming Ma (Peking U., Guanghua Sch. Mgmt.) & Lufei Ruan (San Francisco St. U.), CEO Tax Effects on Corporate Misconduct: Evidence from CEOs’ Capital Gains Taxes (Jan. 31, 2026)

Hans Gribnau (Tilburg L. Sch.), Developing Sustainable Corporate Tax Governance, in A Journey Through European and International Taxation 125 (2024)

Jim Y. Huang (U. Toronto), Structural Fiscalistics in Taxation: The 4-3-3-2 Grammar as an Executable Institutional Syntax Reframing Canadian and International Tax Law as a Routing System (Jan. 24, 2026)

Jim Y. Huang (U. Toronto), Trust as a Routing Container Minimal Executable Syntax for T3 in the 4-3-3-2 Grammar (Feb. 4, 2026)

Mohaimen M Kaisar (Independent), Reforming the Automotive Regulatory Framework in Bangladesh: A Data-Driven Approach to Taxation, Modification, and Sustainability (Dec. 9, 2025)

Kathryn Kisska-Schulze (Clemson, Powers C. Bus.), Ryan Polk (Clemson, Powers C. Bus.) & Judson R. Jahn (Clemson, Powers C. Bus.), Tariff-ied: The Constitutional Boundaries of Tax- and Tariff-Related Speech, 189 Tax Notes Fed. 1795 (Dec. 15, 2025)

Radek Kovács (Prague U. Econ. & Bus.), Jan Pavel (Prague U. Econ. & Bus.) & Jana Tepperová (Prague U. Econ. & Bus.), Behaviorally Informed Communication and Tax Compliance: The Case of the Tax Echo Experiments in the Czech Republic (Feb. 5, 2026)

Daniele Majorana (Independent), EU VAT Committee Working Paper No. 1118 and VAT Rules for Digital Platforms (Jan. 15, 2026)

Michael McDonald (UVA), IRS Memo on CWI: Moving Away from the Arm’s-Length Standard? (Mar. 24, 2025)

Michael McDonald (UVA), The Treatment of Taxes in Transfer Pricing Methods: An Illustrative Primer (Nov. 24, 2025)

Edward A. Morse (Creighton), Important Developments in Federal Income Taxation (Dec. 1, 2025)

Kehinde Emmanuel Oladele (Ahmadu Bello U.), Gender and Taxation in Nigeria: A Critical Analysis of Implicit Biases in Tax Policy and Tax Administration (Jan. 22, 2026)

Richard Pomp (U. Conn.), A Second Bite at the Apple, a Hail Mary, and a Rush to Judgment, 188 Tax Notes 767 (Dec. 15, 2025)

Mansi S.Rai (N.Y. St. Dept. Tax’n & Fin.), Rethinking Public Law 86-272 in the Digital Economy (Jan. 22, 2026)

Taylor Robert (Independent), The Role of Audits in Improving Corporate Tax Compliance (Feb. 5, 2026)

H. David Rosenbloom (Caplin & Drysdale) & Fadi Shaheen (Rutgers), Brief of Amici Curiae in Bruyea v. United States (Sept. 9, 2025)

Erika Isabella Scuderi (Florida), Introduction to Space Taxation, in Regulating Space-Based Commerce: Insights from Economics and International Economic Law (R. Polanco et al. eds., forthcoming 2026)

Laura Snyder (Assn. Am. Resident Overseas), John Richardson (Citizenship Solutions), Karen Alpert (U. Queensland, Bus. Sch.), FBAR Penalty: Appropriating Retirement Savings of the Elderly? (Feb. 5, 2026)

Stewart E. Sterk (Cardozo), Property Rights v. Taxpayer Rights: The Battle over Tax Foreclosures, 103 Wash. U. L. Rev. Online (forthcoming)

Theophilus Tawiah (UPSA L. Sch.), Ghana’s Tax Appeals System: Problems and Proposed Solutions (June 30, 2026)

Vadym Tsymbal (Örebro U.), At the Edge of the State: Tax, AI, and the Rise of Embedded Governance (Dec. 2, 2025)