NGO Eurodad expressed surprise in a new report on Wednesday 7 December that there has not been a reduction in the number of sweetheart deals (tax rulings) two years after the Luxleaks scandal that showed how these legal tools can be used to cut company tax bills to derisory levels (sometimes less than 1%).
‘One might have thought that these revelations would cause fewer deals to be signed by European governments. But on the contrary, the number of sweetheart deals in the EU has soared from 547 in 2013, to 972 in 2014, and it finally reached 1444 by the end of 2015 – which is an increase of over 160 per cent between 2013 and 2015,’ writes the NGO in its report. ‘The most dramatic increases have occurred in Belgium (with the number of sweetheart deals going from 10 in 2013 to 166 by the end of 2014, and 411 by the end of 2015), and in Luxembourg, where the amount of sweetheart deals skyrocketed after the LuxLeaks scandal’ from 347 at the end of 2012 to 519 at the end of 2015.
‘One of the few countries that were not using sweetheart deals (Slovenia) has now introduced the legislative basis needed to start signing them. Since these deals are secret to the public, the specific content of the deals that are being signed is unknown,’ regrets Eurodad. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)