The European Parliament’s TAXE 2 special committee on tax rulings has published its draft report, following a series of evidence sessions held over the last six months with representatives from a number of jurisdictions, multinational corporations and European banks.
The European Parliament’s TAXE 2 special committee on tax rulings has published its draft report, following a series of evidence sessions held over the last six months with representatives from a number of jurisdictions, multinational corporations and European banks. The remit of the special committee is to ‘focus on harmful corporate tax regimes and practices at European and international level, with the aim of fighting tax evasion and aggressive tax planning, notably by increasing transparency and cooperation between governments and between national parliaments’.
The priorities outlined in the report include ‘concrete legislative action’ on transfer pricing; a renewed call for a common corporate consolidated tax base; and binding EU legislation on patent box regimes, going beyond the OECD’s ‘modified nexus approach’, to ensure that intellectual property tax breaks are closely linked with genuine economic activity.
Other recommendations include:
· keeping the proposed anti-tax avoidance directive as one single directive;
· encouraging member states to endorse an agreed blacklist of uncooperative tax havens by the end of 2016;
· introducing an EU-wide withholding tax, to ensure that profits are taxed at least once before leaving the EU, with a refund system to avoid double taxation;
· promoting research and development through subsidies, rather than patent boxes;
· introducing a ‘minimum effective taxation’ clause into the interest and royalties directive;
· an EU code of conduct for all advisory services, including tough sanctions for professionals and companies involved in aggressive tax planning and evasion;
· creating a new EU ‘tax policy coherence and coordination centre’;
· guaranteeing EU-wide legal protection for whistleblowers; and
· reforming the European council’s code of conduct group on business taxation to increase its transparency and accountability.
The report’s recommendations form a motion for a resolution to be presented to the European parliament. See www.bit.ly/25aIxcb.
The European Parliament’s TAXE 2 special committee on tax rulings has published its draft report, following a series of evidence sessions held over the last six months with representatives from a number of jurisdictions, multinational corporations and European banks.
The European Parliament’s TAXE 2 special committee on tax rulings has published its draft report, following a series of evidence sessions held over the last six months with representatives from a number of jurisdictions, multinational corporations and European banks. The remit of the special committee is to ‘focus on harmful corporate tax regimes and practices at European and international level, with the aim of fighting tax evasion and aggressive tax planning, notably by increasing transparency and cooperation between governments and between national parliaments’.
The priorities outlined in the report include ‘concrete legislative action’ on transfer pricing; a renewed call for a common corporate consolidated tax base; and binding EU legislation on patent box regimes, going beyond the OECD’s ‘modified nexus approach’, to ensure that intellectual property tax breaks are closely linked with genuine economic activity.
Other recommendations include:
· keeping the proposed anti-tax avoidance directive as one single directive;
· encouraging member states to endorse an agreed blacklist of uncooperative tax havens by the end of 2016;
· introducing an EU-wide withholding tax, to ensure that profits are taxed at least once before leaving the EU, with a refund system to avoid double taxation;
· promoting research and development through subsidies, rather than patent boxes;
· introducing a ‘minimum effective taxation’ clause into the interest and royalties directive;
· an EU code of conduct for all advisory services, including tough sanctions for professionals and companies involved in aggressive tax planning and evasion;
· creating a new EU ‘tax policy coherence and coordination centre’;
· guaranteeing EU-wide legal protection for whistleblowers; and
· reforming the European council’s code of conduct group on business taxation to increase its transparency and accountability.
The report’s recommendations form a motion for a resolution to be presented to the European parliament. See www.bit.ly/25aIxcb.
