Brussels, 25/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - At a plenary debate with the Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, the members of the European Parliament drew a few lines in the sand regarding the fight against tax optimisation. The substance of the debate showed that the European Commission's task will not be easy, given the various political sensitivities, but also national ones.
In general, the MEPs welcome the Commission's proposal on the automatic exchange of information on tax rulings, early tax decisions which, when improperly used, have allowed multinationals to carry out tax optimisation (see EUROPE 11277). Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL, Portugal) said that transparency was a matter for the public domain. Peter Simon (S&D, Germany) called for the register the Commission hopes to set up on this exchange of information to be made public. Cora van Nieuwenhuizen (S&D, Netherlands) asked the Commissioner what measures had been negotiated with the major international powers as regards the questions of transparency. She pointed out that the OECD and the G20 were the international framework within which this question should be dealt with.
“It is my belief that what we are proposing is substantial. This marks a kind of new era for the EU, going beyond the arsenal of 1977”, he said. Marisa Matias and Molly Scott Cato (Greens/EFA, United Kingdom) suggested that the Commission's proposed exchange on the rulings had simply clarified a 40-year-old directive. This directive, which was revised in 2011, already provided for an automatic exchange under certain conditions. “This is an initial phase and not an end in itself”, Pierre Moscovici promised.
The Commission intends to take other initiatives on transparency, this time for companies, in the legislative package to be presented in June. It is now getting to work on defining ways of calibrating this proposal, which has been called for by many groups of the Parliament. Burkhard Balz (EPP, Germany) seemed inclined to oppose this initiative. “There is no vital need to create bureaucracy for all companies. We have placed the real economy at the heart of our concerns, we are trying to launch an investment initiative. By creating too many information obligations, we are ruining many things”, he said, arguing in favour of a cost/benefit analysis. “Reporting (information) for the sake of reporting will not be able to count on our support”, he concluded.
CCCTB. Opinions differ between the countries on the common consolidated corporate tax base ('CCCTB'). Belgium's Tom Vandenkendelaere (EPP) spoke in favour of this kind of tax harmonisation, but Irish members of the same group, Brian Hayes and Sean Kelly, opposed it. “I do not believe that the citizens want total harmonisation of the tax codes, this is a competence of the member states”, said Hayes. “The proposal on the CCCTB, that's a no. Many small countries would struggle to accept it, as it discriminates against them”, Kelly said. The ECR group also took position firmly against the CCCTB. The EP's opinion on tax dossiers is consultative, but the debate appears to be a useful barometer of the national positions. An Irish 'no' alone would be enough to block the project at the Council, where decisions on taxation matters are taken unanimously. Even so, Pierre Moscovici plans to submit an identical or modified proposal on the CCCTB in June. This proposal will be put to the Twenty-Eight, he told a press conference last week. The report by Eva Kaili (S&D, Greece), which recommends that the Council move forward on the CCCTB, was however adopted by a comfortable majority (444 votes in favour, 110 against and 41 abstentions). (Elodie Lamer)