The GloBE Information Return (GIR) is the most complex standardised filing document in international tax. Around 480 data points per jurisdiction, multiple entity types with different treatment rules, Part E reconciliation requirements, and a submission format that most tax authorities require in OECD-schema-aligned XML. GIR software that reduces this to a single-upload workflow is not a convenience — it is a practical necessity for any group with more than a handful of constituent entities.
Why manual GIR preparation fails
The core problem with spreadsheet-based GIR preparation is the absence of a provenance link between a GIR output and the source data that produced it. When an auditor asks "where does this €947,600 top-up tax figure come from?", the answer should be traceable in seconds — through the top-up percentage, the excess profit calculation, the GloBE ETR, the adjusted covered taxes, the current tax expense, and back to a specific row in the tax provision. In a spreadsheet, this chain exists only as a narrative in the preparer's head.
A second problem is scale. A group with 50 entities across 15 jurisdictions needs 750 entity-jurisdiction data combinations before the calculation even begins. Maintaining that in a spreadsheet — with consistent formulas, version control, and safe harbour pre-screening — is operationally unsustainable.
What GIR software must do
Effective GIR software handles the full data journey:
- Ingestion — accept source data in whatever format the client has: consolidation pack exports, tax provision workbooks, adjustments schedules and SBIE schedules, as Excel or CSV.
- Computation — run the full GloBE calculation, entity by entity, with safe harbour pre-screening before the main computation.
- Assembly — populate all ~480 GIR data points from the calculation output, with no manual transcription step.
- Validation — check the GIR for schema compliance, logical consistency (ETR bounds, QDMTT contradictions, Part E reconciliation) before submission.
- Export — generate OECD-schema-aligned XML for filing, and a human-readable audit report for review and retention.
The traceability requirement
Good GIR software emits provenance alongside computation — not as a separate reconstruction step. This means every GIR field carries a pointer to the calculation node and source input that produced it. A change to any source figure updates the GIR and the provenance trace consistently, with no reconciliation required.
Collaboration and sign-off
GIR preparation involves multiple people: the preparer who uploads the data, the reviewer who checks the computation, and the senior partner or director who approves the filing. GIR software should support this workflow natively — @mention queries, flagged calculation steps, and explicit approval records — so the sign-off trail is retained inside the tool, not in an email thread.
Pillar2OS handles the full GIR workflow from data upload to XML export, with tamper-evident provenance on every output. Start free with five entities.