With 43 votes in favour, 4 against and 5 abstentions, the members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) voted, on Wednesday 28 June, in favour of the opinion report on the revision of administrative cooperation in the field of taxation ‘DAC8’.
This revision has already been agreed by the EU Council, at the ‘Economic and Financial Affairs’ Council last May (see EUROPE 13183/1). MEPs had already deplored the lack of consideration shown by the EU Council, which therefore took a position without waiting for the opinion of the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13188/16).
“Member States omitted important aspects such as the minimum penalties proposed by the European Commission and a definition of high net worth individuals”, said the rapporteur Rasmus Andresen (Greens/EFA, German) in a press release.
In his view, the text voted in ECON is “the exact opposite”. “We favour common minimum penalties for non-reporting, especially in the most critical areas such as those covered by the DAC2 directive on the sharing of information on bank accounts held in another Member State) and the DAC4 directive on the sharing of the country-by-country reports submitted by companies, and we agreed on a definition of high net worth individuals”, he explained.
The MEPs also spoke out in favour of broadening the scope of application, i.e. the information that must be exchanged, such as income and capital gains from financial and luxury assets. They asked as well for the Commission to consider the creation of a European Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), as requested by Belgium.
In addition, the MEPs suggested that the Commission assess the need for and the most appropriate way of including information on ownership, income and financial or non-financial assets in other areas in the automatic exchange of information, and present concrete proposals: - beneficial owners of immovable property and companies; - financial assets; - non-financial assets such as cash, art, gold or other valuables held at free ports, customs warehouses or safes; - ownership of yachts and private jets; - accounts at larger peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding and similar platforms.
To read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/7sl (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)