The European Commission already has a number of options in mind to govern the activities of tax advisers, following the very many scandals that have cropped up regularly in the news since the start of its term in office. It appears that the Commission is leaning towards transparency measures rather than a code of conduct.
In a public road map, it explains that one option would be to encourage the member states, by means of recommendation, to collect and possibly to exchange information on aggressive tax planning schemes devised by these tax advisers. "This non-binding option is unlikely to be effective to achieve the objectives, as most member state authorities will not have the means to retrieve this information in many cases and taxpayers and/or providers of tax advice would not be legally bound to report it", the Commission notes.
A second option would be of a legislative nature, requiring banks and other service providers (lawyers, etc.) to make a declaration when they use aggressive tax planning schemes. This reporting could be carried out directly to the tax authorities. For instance, the transparency obligations could be put into practice through the directive on the financial instruments markets (MiFID). However, the Commission seems more in favour of placing a direct obligation on the tax administrations through the administrative cooperation directive. This option would also make it possible to set in place an exchange of information between tax administrations.
Finally, a third option would be to require at least certain taxpayers to publish some or all of their tax planning schemes, most likely by means of amendments to the accounting standards directive.
To add to these transparency measures, the Commission is also considering drawing up a European code of conduct to govern the activities of tax advisers. In that scenario, however, the thresholds above which behaviour could be sanctioned would have to be defined "and it may be difficult to find agreement on this point at this stage in time". Furthermore, a European code of conduct would only have declaratory value and it would have to be transposed into the national codes of conduct. However, this option would also be complicated as regards monitoring the behaviour of the tax advisers in question, particularly as certain member states do not require individuals practising such activities to hold any professional qualifications. The Commission therefore seems to take the view that there are too many obstacles and issues standing in the way of this option. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)