Belgium, which will take over the Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2024, presented its programme on Wednesday 13 December. As far as taxation is concerned, the country will have a lot of work to do, as the European elections are looming and few files were resolved in 2022.
“In the area of direct taxation, priority will be given to measures aiming to curb tax evasion, tax avoidance, aggressive tax planning and harmful tax competition”, the programme states.
This will involve: - updating the EU list of non-cooperative countries and territories drawn up by the Council’s Code of Conduct Group (see EUROPE 13304/23); - support for legislative and non-legislative initiatives aimed at reducing compliance costs and the burden on cross-border investors; - tackling tax abuse linked to withholding taxes (see EUROPE 13288/18).
The future Belgian Presidency welcomes the ‘Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation’ (‘BEFIT’) initiative presented in September (see EUROPE 13248/20). This initiative provides for a common framework instead of 27 national corporate tax systems (see EUROPE 13301/22).
In the longer term, Belgium will examine the usefulness of more unified tax regulations in other areas, following the example of the regulation relating to mobile workers.
In addition, the future Belgian Presidency will support the implementation of the directive aimed at preventing the abuse of shell entities for tax purposes (‘UNSHELL’). In September, the Spanish Presidency proposed a two-stage approach: - a first stage in which Member States would automatically exchange information on the basis of a number of agreed markers; - a second stage in which they would exchange best practice concerning the use of this information (see EUROPE 13271/20).
Given that this approach would require more in-depth analysis, the European Commission has proposed a minimum standard approach and a toolbox of consequences. This second solution did not lead to a compromise.
VAT. “The Belgian Presidency will further emphasise action aiming to close the VAT gap, benefiting both national and EU budgets”, the programme states. Belgium therefore wishes to prioritise the proposal on “VAT in the digital age” and the revision of the Customs Code (see EUROPE 13298/11).
As far as VAT is concerned, the Spanish Presidency has tried to find a solution to satisfy those delegations which have expressed doubts about the presumed supplier rule or which want more flexibility for short-term accommodation and passenger transport services. While the majority of Member States supported the latest compromise text, some delegations were unable to support it and others suggested an optional application of the presumed supplier rule.
Finally, at the beginning of 2024, the Belgian Presidency will continue the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive. Although Spain has managed to reach elements of a compromise, differences between delegations persist on several crucial issues relating to minimum levels of taxation: - the special treatment of natural gas and LPG; - indexation of minimum tax levels; - lower calorific values; - the definition of business flights; - wood taxation.
To see the Belgian Presidency website, go to https://aeur.eu/f/a2e
To see the full Belgian presidency programme, go to https://aeur.eu/f/a4i (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)