It will not be easy for the European Union to require tax advisers to comply with any particular framework, as most of them are registered outside the EU, is the substance of the results of a study carried out by Willem Pieter De Groen of the Centre for European Policy Studies for the European Parliament which he presented on Tuesday 2 May to the Panama Papers committee of investigation.
The Panama Papers scandal revealed that most of these intermediaries are located in Asia and just 9% of them are in the EU. These tax advisers are responsible for 13% of entities (shell companies) set up, mostly in the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Cyprus, according to De Groen.
The scope of application of any European rules should furthermore be broad, as these tax advisers are not just law firms or accountants, but also trusts and financial institutions.
European Commission is currently looking at measures to deter tax intermediaries from promoting aggressive tax planning regimes. One option would be to require them to submit the regimes they devise to the authorities or to publish them. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)