The Social Democratic and Green Groups within the European Parliament are taking up the challenge of introducing a minimum corporate taxation rate in the European Union.
With a view to the adoption, on Tuesday 26 March in plenary, of the draft report of the 'TAXE 3' special committee (see EUROPE 12202/16, 12203/5), they jointly tabled an amendment calling on “Member States to work with the European Commission in order to determine a fair level of minimum effective taxation at EU level and to promote such a standard at global level”. According to both groups, this level of minimum effective taxation “should not be set below 18% of corporate net profits”.
The adoption of such a Europe-wide rate aims to stop “the race to the bottom on corporate tax”, emphasised Jeppe Kofod (S&D, Denmark), co-rapporteur of the draft report, which argues that ordinary people should not be left to pick up the unpaid tax bill of rich and powerful multinational companies.
According to the Commission, nominal corporate tax rates have decreased at EU level from an average of 32% in 2000 to 21.9% in 2018, which represents a decrease of 32%.
At the end of February, during the vote in the 'TAXE 3' committee, as many MEPs had approved or rejected the Social Democratic amendment on the introduction of a minimum effective corporate tax rate in the EU.
Other amendments to be put to the vote in plenary include: - an amendment by the S&D group that welcomes the updating of the European black list. This now includes fifteen non-cooperative non-Member States from a tax point of view, including 10 countries that have not respected their commitments with regard to cooperation and transparency (see EUROPE 12212/5); - an amendment by the GUE/NGL Group which advocates – with respect to the question of equal treatment between Member States – maintaining unanimity in tax decision-making in the EU Council; - an amendment by the Greens/EFA Group advocating a reform of EU competition law in order to take stronger action against tax-harmful state aid granted to multinationals; - an amendment by the EFDD Group deploring the Commission's lack of progress in the fight against tax evasion due to the "controversial" role of its President, Jean-Claude Juncker, in the LuxLeaks scandal when he was Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Luxembourg. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)