Digital taxation is a “political duty” rather than an important source of revenue for the EU, EU Commissioner of Taxation Paolo Gentiloni acknowledged at an online conference organised by the Commission on Monday 21 September.
Invited to detail the European Commission’s priorities in the field of taxation, Mr Gentiloni insisted on the creation of new own resources not only to pay back the European Recovery Plan, but also to put in place a fairer taxation system.
“It is, in a sense, now or never [...], with this political momentum, to introduce new own resources and to make our system fairer, or it will be much more difficult to do it 5 years from now”, he said.
Asked about digital taxation as a potential own resource, Mr Gentiloni confirmed that the Commission intends to tackle the “big winners” of the Covid-19 crisis, namely the digital platforms. “We all know that we will not have billions and billions coming from this digital taxation”, he acknowledged, however.
This observation was also shared by German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Irene Tinagli (S&D, Italy), during the conference.
Other measures, such as those presented by the Commission at the end of July (see EUROPE 12528/2) to better combat tax evasion, could, according to Paolo Gentiloni, generate much more revenue if all of them are properly implemented.
Furthermore, the Commissioner said he was “encouraged” by the discussions on own resources held by EU finance ministers in Berlin in mid-September (see EUROPE 12559/15).
One of the challenges for the Commission will be to combine the revision of the Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) with the border carbon adjustment mechanism, both technically and from the point of view of international trade, he explained. The impact study will be finalised at the end of October and, after consulting the Member States, the Commission will present a proposal in June 2021, he said.
For her part, Irene Tinagli reiterated the importance Parliament attaches to new own resources, not only to pay off common debts, but also to ensure that EU programmes are protected, maintained, and potentially expanded. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)