On Tuesday 22 November, the European Parliament adopted the report by Emmanuel Maurel (S&D, France), calling on the member states to automatically exchange information on the beneficial owners of trusts and shell companies, by a more than comfortable majority (590 votes in favour, 32 against and 64 abstentions).
At the start of November, the Ecofin Council reached an agreement in principle to allow the national tax authorities to have access to this information, in the framework of amendments to the directive on administrative cooperation (see EUROPE 11664).
Parliament, which is only consulted on taxation matters, is therefore calling upon it to go further. Once again, the Council did not wait for Parliament to take a position before getting its own ducks in a row.
This victory in Parliament, with the EPP group voting in favour of almost all of the report, with the exception of a single amendment, once again highlights the democratic weakness of the European Union and the hypocrisy of many governments on the issue of tax equality, Maurel said after the vote.
The European Commission is already reflecting on further amendments to the directive on administrative cooperation, in order to set in place an automatic exchange of information between the European tax administrations.
The Commission's proposal sought to ensure that the rules enter to force on 1 January 2017, but the member states said that they needed more time. The new rules, therefore, will enter into force one year later. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)