With 566 votes in favour, 7 against and 47 abstentions, the European Parliament on Tuesday 4 October in Strasbourg adopted the own-initiative report by Lídia Pereira (EPP, Portuguese) on the impact of new technologies, in particular crypto-technologies and blockchain technologies, on taxation. The day before, MEPs debated the text. Pereira says it is “important to be visionary”. “We have a duty to make European legislation more innovation-friendly”, she added.
Although she stated that tax policy was the competence of the Member States, she considered that a minimum of cooperation was necessary. “There is no point in legislating independently as this technology crosses borders”, she said. With this text, she wishes to promote coherence between national and European legislation, in particular through the common definition of a crypto-asset.
Salvatore De Meo (EPP, Italian) felt that the environmental impact should also be taken into account. Martin Hlaváček (Renew Europe, Czech) spoke directly to Commissioner for Transport Adina-Ioana Vălean, criticising the Commission for lagging behind on innovation. “Felons are always ahead of the legislation” he said, before asking her to: “Please stick to what we promised each other!”
In her keynote speech, Vălean explained that the proposal to revise the administrative cooperation directive, which is currently being drafted, will reflect the new reality of crypto-assets. She aims to place crypto-assets service providers in a similar position to traditional financial service providers. “This revision aims to close the loopholes for avoiding tax through the use of crypto-assets, ensuring that the tax administration has the necessary information to assess these assets in accordance with the tax rules”, she said.
To read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/3dv (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)