The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) reached, on Monday 24 April, a consensus on strengthening administrative cooperation in the field of taxation. MEPs made some suggestions on the report by Rasmus Andresen (Greens/EFA, German) on the ‘DAC8’ Directive.
His colleague Claude Gruffat (Greens/EFA, French) presented the report. As stated in the explanatory memorandum (see EUROPE 13155/14), he says he is “particularly pleased that the hard work of recent years on information exchange is bearing fruit”. He welcomed the fact that Parliament’s recommendations had been partially taken on board by the European Commission, notably by improving ‘DAC7’.
“The European Parliament rapporteur must send a strong message to the EU Council, because we understand that the text, on the strong aspects requested by the European Parliament, has been severely weakened”, he regretted. A regret shared by Lídia Pereira (EPP, Portuguese): “Unfortunately, governments have not shown the same high level of ambition as the Parliament, they have ignored our recommendations and have still refused to exchange information relevant to our work”.
She also listed her priorities for this text: - not to increase bureaucracy for businesses due to the inclusion of crypto-assets; - ensure a fair and proportionate approach; - ensure the protection of taxpayers’ data; - strengthen the resources of national tax authorities. She also mentioned the need for consistency between DAC8 and the legislation on crypto-assets (see EUROPE 13166/9). Finally, she regretted the lack and/or delay of transposition in the Member States of previous directives.
For Pedro Marques (S&D, Portuguese), represented by Jonás Fernández (S&D, Spanish), the Commission’s proposal is “not optimal, but goes in the right direction”. He wants to see the scope of information broadened to include beneficial ownership of luxury goods, as defined in the anti-money laundering directive (see EUROPE 13151/15). For him, It is also important to ensure that all tax rulings for high net worth individuals are taken into account.
Martin Hlaváček (Renew Europe, Czech) wanted to clarify further how to handle the exchange of tax identification numbers and situations where there is no tax identification number available. He also suggested setting up a sanction mechanism in case of bad cooperation.
Mr Gruffat said that the European Parliament had accelerated its own procedure, as the EU Council will finalise the text in May or June. The deadline for amendments is Wednesday 26 April and two meetings between rapporteurs and one with experts are already scheduled. The amendments will be discussed on Tuesday 23 or Wednesday 24 May, with a view to a vote in ECON on Tuesday 30 May and a final vote at the July plenary session.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/66e (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)