The European Tax Adviser Federation (ETAF) calls for the EU directive implementing the OECD agreement on corporate tax reform to be as faithful as possible to international reform, while recognising the need to achieve a level playing field for large domestic-only groups.
Reacting to Tuesday’s Ecofin Council ministerial debate (see EUROPE 12911/16), the organisation says it is “sceptical”, in a participation document to the specific public consultation initiated by the European Commission, about requests from EU countries, such as Poland, to add legal safeguards to link the implementation of Pillars I (reallocation of taxing rights) and II (minimum effective taxation) of the OECD agreement.
However, the ETAF also echoes the “fears” expressed by several Member States about the timing of the implementation of the future EU rules. It points out “the complexity for tax authorities, tax advisers and for the companies they advise to implement the OECD tax deal in such a short period of time and as the fine-tuning of some rules at OECD level is still ongoing”. For this reason, it supports the postponement of the application of the directive until the end of 2023.
Finally, in order not to put European companies at a disadvantage compared to their international competitors, the organisation says that the EU should provide for the possibility of delaying the application of future European rules if a significant number of international partners, such as the US, do not comply with the OECD agreement.
See ETAF’s position: https://aeur.eu/f/tw (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)