European companies are ahead of their American and Asia-Pacific brethren in their preparations to comply with the OECD's Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action Plan, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.

One-quarter of corporate tax and transfer pricing directors in the survey say their companies will fail to meet the first deadline proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its BEPS Action Plan.

Finance ministers for the G20 countries called on the OECD to develop the BEPS Action Plan to help nations align their corporate tax policies with one another. This week the OECD will present the plan to the G20 finance ministers in Lima, the capital of Peru.

The plan is already having its effect around the world. Several countries — including the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Singapore and China — have proposed new corporate tax and transfer pricing rules broadly reflecting the tenets of the BEPS Action Plan even before its official publication.

The Thomson Reuters survey found that European companies are paying more attention to BEPS planning than their peers around the world. The majority of respondents (59%) from companies whose headquarters were in Europe said that they were preparing for BEPS proactively, compared with 48% of companies in the Americas and Asia Pacific.

Additionally, 47% of European respondents said that they were spending between 2 and 15 hours per week on BEPS activity, compared with 26% for the Americas and Asia Pacific.

This regional disparity may be due to the higher degree of BEPS-related activity taking place in Europe compared with the US, where there has been little discussion of the OECD’s recommendations in the federal legislature.

Europe also leads the world in 'BEPS activism.' Among all respondents, 19% said that their companies had submitted comments to the OECD regarding the BEPS discussion drafts – but in Europe it was 45%.

This regional disparity is also seen in internal company discussions about the BEPS Action Plan. Overall, 55% of survey respondents said that they had addressed the issue with their boards of directors — although the number drops to 39% in the US and rises to 63% in Europe.

Some multinational corporations are taking a potentially dangerous 'wait-and-see' approach. With the first deadline just over 24 months away, the OECD is urging them to make efforts to be fully compliant by 2017.