Brussels, 17/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 17 December, the European Commission announced that it had extended its request for information on tax ruling practices to all of the member states of the EU. Amongst other things, the Commission wants to know whether these states grant tax rulings and, if so, would like to see a list of the companies which benefited from them between 2010 and 2013, as it has already done in the case of six member states (Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) since June 2013. Belgium has also been asked for information on certain specific tax rulings.
The Commission's request by no means prejudges the opening of investigation to determine whether a selective advantage has been granted to any particular company. The Community Executive also justifies its decision by the need for a full picture of this practice - which can take several forms - in order to help it to identify whether there could have been a distortion of competition. The Commission has already explained that 24 member states have an official procedure for these tax rulings and that four (Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia and Slovakia) do not (although rulings of this kind exist in Cyprus). The aim is therefore to verify whether, as in the case of Cyprus, some practices can be considered a tax ruling in countries which have no official practice.
In June, in the light of the first series of information received, the Commission decided to open investigations in three cases: Apple in Ireland, Starbucks in the Netherlands and Fiat Finance and Trade in Luxembourg (EUROPE 11098). A further investigation was launched in October into Amazon in Luxembourg (EUROPE 11171).
It is also worth noting that Luxembourg has brought an action before the General Court of the EU for the cancellation of the Commission's injunctions calling upon it to provide more information, describing the Commission's proceedings as a kind of 'fishing expedition'. When the LuxLeaks scandal broke in early November, the Luxembourg finance minister, Pierre Gramegna, explained that his government and the Commission had “differences of opinion over the interpretation of the law as to whether it can require a country to notify all of its tax decisions” (EUROPE 11192). For its part, the Commission decided to open infringement proceedings to bring the case before the Court of Justice of the EU, in order to obtain the information which it believes Luxembourg is obliged to provide.
Both cases will be heard on 8 January of next year and a verdict may be forthcoming in the first half of 2015. If the General Court overturns the decisions made by the Commission, the institution will be obliged to withdraw all similar requests it may have sent the member states, unless a suspensive clause in the verdict allows the Commission to keep its requests in place, a General Court source explained. (EL)