Amsterdam, 21/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European finance ministers have agreed to carry out a pilot project for the automatic exchange of information on the beneficial ownership of shell companies, but have not lost sight of the initiatives already on the table.
On behalf of the current Presidency of the Council, the Dutch finance minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, was unable to name the date for the launch of this pilot project, explaining that the national registers of beneficial owners had to be set in place, which would require “serious work” in the cases of some of the member states.
The informal Amsterdam meeting provided the opportunity for the Dutch Presidency of the Council to reiterate its intention of reaching a political agreement in May on the proposed anti-tax avoidance directive (see other article), but not counting on Ireland, which told the debate behind closed doors that it still had reservations and a “long way to go”. In any case, European Commissioner for Taxation Pierre Moscovici, called once again for a global agreement on the package, which contains six anti-tax avoidance provisions, only three of which come from the OECD's BEPS action plan to fight tax optimisation.
The ministers also discussed the proposal presented very recently on the country-by-country transparency for companies' accounting data (country-by-country reporting). According to one source, Austria said that there would be problems if this reporting was completely public. Sweden is reported also to have said that there were issues with public reporting, stressing the fact that in some cases, there are reasons behind the fact that taxes are paid as they are. Businesses also feel that members of the general public does not necessarily have the understanding required to tackle these figures. London is reported to have called for public reporting on the activities of multinationals in the EU and outside it. The Commission's proposal provides only for data on an aggregate basis for third countries, with the exception of those on the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in taxation matters.
“There is no unanimous agreement” on this proposed public reporting, more like “broad consent”, Moscovici explained. Dijsselbloem said that the work would start next week. However, this is a matter for the Competitiveness Council and the decisions will be made by qualified majority, in co-decision with the European Parliament.
Moscovici also spoke of unanimous support for the EU to adopt its own blacklist, expressing his hopes that criteria and a method would be in place by the end of the summer. The G20 has called upon the OECD to establish criteria. “We have agreed that this will be joint Commission/OECD work”, he said, adding that the international list would take time. During the debate, Germany is reported to have said that the EU blacklist should contain fiscal aspects regarding money laundering and the financing of terrorism. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)