Brussels, 08/06/2016 (Agence Europe) -France believes that its pro-intellectual property regime, known as 'patent boxes”, do not need any changes ('rollback'), as it considers that its regime is not harmful, according to the six-monthly report of the Council's 'corporate taxation code of conduct' group, of which EUROPE has had sight.
On 2 June of this year, at the meeting of the group, the other member states asked it to prove that its patent box regime complies with the new OECD standard. In the six-monthly report, France said that in the framework of its examination, it felt that its regime should be seen from a broader angle, taking account of its particular level of taxation (15%) in order to assess its non-harmful nature.
France's approach consists of stating that its regime is frankly unattractive to companies wishing to carry out aggressive tax planning. All of the member states with a regime of this kind, with the exception of France, have informed the group of the procedures set in place to comply with their commitments. Readers may recall that in 2014, the 'code of conduct' group agreed to change these regimes to come into line with the OECD standard, the modified nexus approach, which aims to relate real economic activity to the tax advantage.
In June 2015, the Commission gave the member states 18 months to changes their regimes, or face being presented with a binding legislative initiative on the subject. At this stage, the Commission feels that the work is making good headway and that there is no immediate need to present binding provisions. On Tuesday 7 June, at a debate at the EP, the Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, said that the Commission was nonetheless remaining “vigilant”. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)