On Tuesday 23 October, several MEPs called for a European solution, in the framework of extending the scope of application of the European rules governing the automatic exchange of tax information to share dividends, in response to the recent revelations of the CumEx Files scandal (see EUROPE 12120).
On behalf of the EPP group, Germany's Markus Ferber criticised the Commission which said in a letter in early October that it saw no reason to extend the scope of the European directives on the automatic exchange of tax information. Similarly, Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany) said that this exchange of information should cover share dividends. Marco Valli (EFDD, Italy) agrees. “We have bailed out the 'too big to fail' banks with the taxpayer's money and it is they who dictate the law”, he said.
The European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, considers that the idea of extending the European rules “deserves to be explored”, but this will take time and the legislative period is reaching its end. The new European rules, which were not in place at the time of the scandal, will make future such scandals far more difficult, as long as the tax administrations meet their obligations. “What used to be spontaneous is now automatic and therefore compulsory”, he stressed.
The Commissioner went on to call for the deadlock at the Council on the proposed automatic country-by-country reporting to be broken.
Karoline Edtstadler said that fighting aggressive tax policies continues to be a priority of the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU. “We have not yet discussed the CumEx Files scandal”, she did, however, admit.
Pervenche Berès (S&D, France) called for reforms of the tax credit on dividends in the member states. She considers that introducing a financial transactions tax (FTT) at EU level would also have allowed progress to be made. Her Danish colleague, Jeppe Kofod, made the case for a 112 hotline to be set up to report financial scandals.
Passing through Strasbourg, the French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, pledged action: “if there is the slightest evidence that French banks may be involved in CumEx (…), we will offer the fraudsters no quarter”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Marion Fontana)