Digital taxation will again be on the agenda of the ‘Ecofin’ Council on 16 March. The EU Finance Ministers should take stock of the discussions.
In preparation for this debate, delegations held an informal exchange of views with the US Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs, Itai Grinberg, and the Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, Pascal Saint-Amans, at the EU Council’s High Level Working Party on Taxation on Tuesday 2 March.
Progress was made on this issue at the G20 Finance meeting last week (see EUROPE 12667/4), with the withdrawal of the US request of a voluntary scheme.
According to a European source, the exchange of views between the delegations would have been fairly brief, with few interventions, but a more substantial discussion would be expected at Ministerial level.
FATCA. On the same day, the delegations also took stock, together with Mr Grinberg, of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) (see EUROPE 12665/29).
The US tax authorities reportedly accepted the request for a meeting, sent by Germany during its Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12625/35), and requested a preliminary discussion with the Chairman of the High Level Working Party on the best way forward.
At the meeting, the delegations would have welcomed this positive reaction and the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council would have been mandated to prepare this discussion, together with the European Commission and some Member States.
It should be noted that several countries have reportedly stressed the importance of making progress on the issue of reciprocity in the exchange of information, which is considered to be an essentially political issue and which should, in their view, be dealt with separately from that of “accidental Americans”. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)