The European Commission’s tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici told MEPs from the Special Committee on Tax Rulings and the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee at a hearing on 18 January that 2016 should be the year of corporate tax reform and fiscal transparency for the EU, as he promised to present an ambitious anti-tax avoidance package by the end of January. This package, which he said would be the cornerstone of his work in the coming months, is to include legal and non-legal proposals focusing on both the internal (EU) and external (third countries) dimensions.
Moscovici also mentioned the tax transparency package and the action plan for corporate taxation initiatives, which are already under way. He noted that the Council of Ministers may find it difficult to agree on ambitious measures, as unanimity is the rule for taxation and some member states are showing resistance.
‘We have a serious problem with tax avoidance and lack of transparency. Too many people have looked the other way,’ Moscovici said. He reiterated that the Commission is in favour of a consolidated common corporate tax base (CCCTB), but is taking a two-phase approach starting with the common corporate tax base in phase one, before consolidation in phase two. He also confirmed that an impact assessment for country-by-country reporting was underway and that he would come up with proposals, probably in the spring of 2016, together with his colleagues Jonathan Hill and Věra Jourová. However, he warned that such a measure should not lead to negative competition effects for EU based companies.
Earlier that day, Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs told Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna, in a meeting on the achievements of Luxembourg’s outgoing EU presidency, that EU member states’ exchange of information on tax rulings was ‘substandard’. He said that the information being provided was ‘minimal’ and of little help to Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in investigating whether state aid rules have been breached. MEPs had urged that the tax that Luxembourg (Fiat), Netherlands (Starbucks) and Belgium (excess profit rulings) must recover from companies, in Vestager’s recent state aid decisions, should not go to the ‘guilty’ countries themselves, but elsewhere, as is in other competition cases.
The European Commission’s tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici told MEPs from the Special Committee on Tax Rulings and the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee at a hearing on 18 January that 2016 should be the year of corporate tax reform and fiscal transparency for the EU, as he promised to present an ambitious anti-tax avoidance package by the end of January. This package, which he said would be the cornerstone of his work in the coming months, is to include legal and non-legal proposals focusing on both the internal (EU) and external (third countries) dimensions.
Moscovici also mentioned the tax transparency package and the action plan for corporate taxation initiatives, which are already under way. He noted that the Council of Ministers may find it difficult to agree on ambitious measures, as unanimity is the rule for taxation and some member states are showing resistance.
‘We have a serious problem with tax avoidance and lack of transparency. Too many people have looked the other way,’ Moscovici said. He reiterated that the Commission is in favour of a consolidated common corporate tax base (CCCTB), but is taking a two-phase approach starting with the common corporate tax base in phase one, before consolidation in phase two. He also confirmed that an impact assessment for country-by-country reporting was underway and that he would come up with proposals, probably in the spring of 2016, together with his colleagues Jonathan Hill and Věra Jourová. However, he warned that such a measure should not lead to negative competition effects for EU based companies.
Earlier that day, Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs told Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna, in a meeting on the achievements of Luxembourg’s outgoing EU presidency, that EU member states’ exchange of information on tax rulings was ‘substandard’. He said that the information being provided was ‘minimal’ and of little help to Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in investigating whether state aid rules have been breached. MEPs had urged that the tax that Luxembourg (Fiat), Netherlands (Starbucks) and Belgium (excess profit rulings) must recover from companies, in Vestager’s recent state aid decisions, should not go to the ‘guilty’ countries themselves, but elsewhere, as is in other competition cases.
.jpg?sfvrsn=335a554c_0 "300 x 250 (MPU)")