On Thursday 30 November, the Greens/EFA group at the European Parliament said that Brexit should provide the Twenty-Seven with an opportunity to bring pressure to bear on the United Kingdom to get its house in order in terms of tax policy and the Crown dependencies.
“Outside the EU, the UK will no longer have any influence on EU law, which is likely to make faster progress as a consequence”, said a report commissioned by the ecologist group. But crucially, “the EU can also challenge the EU's tax haven activities as a condition of any close economic relationship to be agreed after Brexit”, the report goes on to stress.
Specifically, the Greens/EFA are encouraging the EU to use the promise of a post-Brexit trade deal as negotiating leverage to force the UK to: - end its zero tax preferential regimes in its Crown dependencies and overseas territories; - ensure that these territories comply with the EU's anti-money laundering and tax transparency standards.
The Greens/EFA group also considers that the UK pro-intellectual property tax regime ('patent box') should be reformed, as well as British rules on controlled foreign companies.
The recent launch by the Commission's competition services of an investigation into these rules indicates that the EU has no plans to see an aggressive tax haven developing on its doorstep.
“The financial agreement on Brexit has made the front pages. However, differences of opinion on tax matters will have a considerably greater impact on the economy of the United Kingdom and the EU of 27”, explained the co-chair of the group, Belgian's Philippe Lambert, who considers that “tax justice should be put at the centre of the Brexit talks”. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)