During the debate on base erosion and profit shifting of multinational firms, the claim for the disclosure of certain tax-related information on a per-country basis, the so called country-by-country reporting (CbCR), has intensified. While the OECD has already decided on the requirement for large multinational corporations to report country-by-country information to the tax authorities in their countries of residence, the draft proposal of the EU Commission and the EU Parliament for a public CbCR for all large multinational firms is still up for discussion. Such a public disclosure of sensitive information can result in a competitive disadvantage for the companies affected. The aim of the study is to illustrate the current developments as well as potential costs and benefits of a public country-by-country reporting, while taking recent empirical findings with respect to existing CbCR initiatives into account.