Brussels, 16/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - S&D MEPs at the European Parliament called on the European Commission on Thursday 16 April to organise a formal investigation of the tax practices of McDonald's in Europe, following the presentation earlier in the day at a meeting of the EP's TAXE committee of a damning report of the multinational recently drawn up by a coalition of European trade unions (see EUROPE 11262). The European Commission is reported to be informally collecting information from Luxembourg about McDonald's (see EUROPE 11287).
'If the preliminary results of the Commission's scrutiny confirm the study's findings, the tax model of McDonald's is clearly indecent and a slap in the face for the average taxpayer,” said Peter Simon of Germany, spokesman for his group for the TAXE committee.
Anneliese Dodds (United Kingdom) quoted figures showing that the crisis and subsequent austerity measures had led to a slump in tax inspections in a number of member states. “We ask the European Commission to ensure that member states act now to stop the reduction in capacity of tax administrations across Europe,” she added. (Elodie Lamer)