Brussels, 11/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Country-by-country reporting by multinationals of financial information (which may include turnover and taxes paid) should be restricted to EU countries, with aggregated data required from multinationals for the rest of their world, explained a number of sources on Friday 11 March.
This information follows statements from the United States to the effect that they reserve the right to interrupt the exchange of information about reporting with a partner if the latter decides to publish the reported information, as deputy Treasury Secretary with responsibility for international affairs Robert Stack explained on Thursday 10 March in a conference in Dublin, quoted by Tax Analysts.
Pascal Saint-Amans, director the OECD's tax policy and administration centre, has been warning the EU for months of the dangers of its desire to move unilaterally in the direction of this information, which could damage the agreement of OECD member countries on reporting to tax authorities. Several EU member states, such as France, have also indicated that they fear that the United States will not follow suit when it comes to publication. This proposal is reported to seem to be calming the US's fears. Civil society representatives say that if the rumours are confirmed, the proposal wouldn't really deserve to be called country-by-country reporting.
Earlier in the week, EU finance ministers reached consensus on reporting to tax administrations (Action 13 of the OECD's BEPS action plan) in the framework of the directive on administrative cooperation. The European Commission was quite insistent on the fact that the information exchanged under the directive would remain confidential.
Taxation Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said the text on the negotiating table did not foresee information being made public now or in the future. He said information defined by the directive would be for administrative cooperation.
A source explained that the proposals on publicity to be unveiled on 12 April would be for a “low-calorie BEPs.” In terms of the annual turnover threshold for the companies in question, the Commission is expected to remain close to the OECD's position, which another source says is €750 million. The European Parliament and civil society are calling for a much lower level.
It is hard to say whether the member states will be more inclined to work with this proposal. Two sources at the Council explain that it might remain blocked on the Council negotiating table for a while. One of the sources says that the two years of work on reporting at the OECD have led it to the conclusion that reporting should be to the tax administrations.
Many member states are not happy that tax questions are being dealt with using qualified majority voting in co-decision. At the Council, people say that there is the possibility for countries to demand a change in the legal basis. If the Commission opposes this, unanimous voting by countries will be required to decide on a change in the legal basis. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)