Brussels, 12/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Swedish company, Ikea, avoided paying a billion euros of tax by using tax havens within the EU, according to a report commissioned by the Greens/EFA group at the European Parliament and published in the early evening of Friday 12 February.
In a press release, the Greens/EFA explain: “One of the techniques is shifting royalties from each IKEA store to a subsidiary in the Netherlands, which acts as a conduit. The royalties go in and out of the Netherlands untaxed and end up in Liechtenstein (or at least partly).”
In a letter dated 12 February, several MEPs from the group explain to Taxation Commissioner Pierre Moscovici and Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager that the report concludes that the anti-tax evasion package unveiled by the Commission on 28 January does not fully answer the concerns raised by the Ikea case and would allow it to continue to use tax loopholes in various countries. The MEPs say the Commission's tax package does not require public reporting of tax rulings and does not address the Belgian system of notional interest used by the Ikea company (EUROPE will return to this). The Belgian system allows companies to deduct their taxable profits from fictitious interest calculated on their risk capital. In the relaunch of the proposals for common consolidated corporate tax base legislation (CCCTB), the Commission is examining how to respond to the question of tax bias in favour of debt. One of the options being explored is 'ACE,' which allows the deductibility of interest paid and notional interest correspond to remuneration on capital. The Commission explained recently that responses to its public consultation showed a clear preference for ACE. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)