Brussels, 12/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 12 October, the European Commission announced that it had carried out a purely technical update of its consolidated version of the member states' lists of non-cooperative third countries. The update reflects changes to the way the member states assess standards of good governance in taxation matters in the third countries, changes to the national lists and Estonia's decision to remove all countries from its national list. This consolidated version therefore represents the situation of the national lists as of 30 June 2015. The decision, this time a political one, will be taken in 2016 to establish a broader strategy to protect the EU from external risks of tax avoidance.
At a meeting of the Platform Tax Good Governance at the end of September, the Commission explained that decisions were ongoing at political level to determine European defensive measures to protect the tax bases of the states, particularly in the framework of the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB). “Beyond the implementation of European measures, there will also be need to ensure that the member states are applying their external anti-abuse measures consistently, in order to avoid new burdens on businesses and new loopholes for those who practice aggressive tax planning”, the Commission said in a document prepared for the meeting of 24 September (see EUROPE 11398).
The 2012 Recommendation states that transparency, exchange of information and fiscal competition are the EU's good governance criteria to assess third countries and proposes joint counter-measures in the event of the non-application of these principles. However, the Commission notes that the member states are using these criteria in a patchwork manner, or not at all. “Even when the criteria are applied, there are inconsistencies between the way two states interpret or apply them”, the Commissioner goes on to explain. This means that third countries are receiving mixed messages about what is expected of them. International developments at OECD level and the emphasis in the EU on ensuring effective taxation also call for a new examination of how the criteria are used, the Commission states. The main issue at hand, therefore, is whether other criteria should also be taken into account when assessing third countries, such as the level of taxation, particularly for no-tax jurisdictions.
The Commission goes on to stress that the publication of its consolidated list of non-cooperative third countries has shed light on the greater impact this may have on the national lists. The feedback the Commission has received since the list was published is that a number of third countries had not been aware that they were included on the list of certain EU states. “Some even suggested that they did not care if they were on national lists, but were extremely concerned to be on the pan-EU list”, the Commission explained. In the long term, the Commission wants a common EU list, rather than just a consolidated version of the various lists.
It goes on to explain that the first step will be to arrive at a clear understanding of what prompted the states to compile their lists and, in particular, which elements can lead to a jurisdiction being withdrawn from the list. The Commission recognises that its consolidated version represents the practices of just half of the states and therefore requires more details on the tools used by states without lists, such as Sweden, Ireland and the United Kingdom, for instance. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)