Brussels, 08/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 8 June, the European Commission asked 15 member states (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden) to provide it with information on a large number of individual tax decisions ('tax rulings').
It is believed that on average, between five and ten 'tax rulings” have been requested from each of these states.
This decision of the Commission was taken in light of information on tax ruling practices requested from all member states in December 2014 (see EUROPE 11220). Calling for additional information does not necessarily mean that it is planning to open in-depth investigations in order to determine whether a selective advantage has been granted through the tax ruling. The Commission declined to divulge the names of the companies concerned by the specific information requested on 8 June.
Tallin and Warsaw in the hotseat. So far, neither Estonia nor Poland has “provided a satisfactory response to the request for information sent to them (at the end of 2014: Ed), invoking tax secrecy and the principle of proportionality”, the Commission states in a press release. “They gave only general information, declining to provide a specific and detailed overview of the tax decisions issued over the period 2010-2013”, it explained. The European institution has therefore published two injunctions ordering Estonia and Poland to notify it of the required information within one month. If it receives no satisfactory response after that time, the Commission could bring the matter before the Court of Justice of the EU.
Addressing the special TAXE committee of the European Parliament in May, the Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, explained that these two countries, plus the Czech Republic, had not submitted the information requested (see EUROPE 11308).
Specific information had already been requested of Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. On the basis of the information received, an in-depth investigation has been launched regarding the companies Apple in Ireland, Fiat Finance and Trade and Amazon in Luxembourg and Starbucks in the Netherlands, as well as into the Belgian system of tax ruling decisions concerning surplus profit (see EUROPE 11245).
In light of the information received from all of the member states (with the exception of Poland and Estonia), there is nothing to suggest to the Commission that it needs to request information on specific decisions from Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Latvia and Slovenia. (Elodie Lamer)