On Wednesday 10 April, the European Parliament adopted (by 443 votes in favour, 110 against and 51 abstentions) its opinion on the HOT Directive aimed at simplifying the taxation of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In particular, it calls for the implementation of this text to be accelerated from 1 January 2025, instead of 2026.
Under this text, the profits of SMEs would be taxed entirely in the country where they are based, rather than in all the Member States to which they export their products or services. A single administration would then be responsible for redistributing the income to which other member countries are entitled.
“This is a clear signal of the urgent need to reduce the tax burden on businesses and support the internationalisation of SMEs”, commented the rapporteur, Lídia Pereira (EPP, Portuguese), on X (formerly Twitter).
In its resolution, the European Parliament wants to support the establishment and operation of a one-stop shop and centralised procedures for filing returns, issuing tax notices and collecting tax. It therefore proposes joint audits and the obligation for Member States' tax authorities to cooperate if the tax authority or subsidiary requests an audit covering the computation of a taxpayer's taxable income.
MEPs also believe that the Member State in which the SME has its head office should assist it in drawing up the tax return, in particular regarding the attribution of taxable result to each permanent establishment and subsidiary in other Member States.
Read the resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/bqo (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)