How Much Transparency is Enough Transparency?
One of our primary activities as a consortium is to advocate for the use of XBRL by countries or organisations having a goal of financial transparency. Data from XBRL filings is increasingly being made available to anyone who wants it, so we think a lot about transparency. This article takes on the question of whether transparent tax and financial reporting should be extended to the individual, especially elected officials, based on the idea (bolstered by the recent Panama Papers leak) that citizens are empowered by knowing such things. A decade ago, the notion of anyone being able to go online and with a few clicks find high quality, structured financial data for millions of firms around the world was equally far-fetched, so we aren’t betting against it.
