On Wednesday 17 April, European experts discussed the tax policies of the next European Commission at a conference organised by the European Tax Adviser Federation (ETAF). In particular, they discussed the taxation of individuals, the simplification of tax rules and cooperation between jurisdictions.
Benjamin Angel, Director of Direct Taxation, Tax Coordination, Economic Analysis and Evaluation at the European Commission’s DG TAXUD, reiterated that the priority was to adopt the eight texts currently on the table.
He announced that the Commission would be carrying out an “honest general evaluation of the directives on administrative cooperation” (DAC 1 to 6) in May. “We will draw conclusions from what is understood and look at how to simplify”, he added. Similarly, the Commission will be looking “closely” at the implementation of the ‘Pillar II’ directive on minimum taxation of multinationals, “to see if we can bring simplification and lighten things up”.
In his view, the next steps will be the taxation of teleworking and the ‘SAFE’ regulation on tax intermediaries. The first relates to tax residence and “potentially concerns millions of people” (see EUROPE 13216/15). The second depends on the directive aimed at preventing the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes (‘UNSHELL’) (see EUROPE 13319/17). “This issue will not go away; we are still convinced that it is necessary”, said Mr Angel.
For Isabel Benjumea MEP (EPP, Spanish), the shift to the right of the European Parliament predicted in the polls will allow anti-European parties to favour a more nationalist approach. “Indirect taxation is European taxation, but the rest is not”, she reminded. She has called for simplification of the tax framework, better cooperation and supervision, but is not in favour of greater harmonisation.
She also stressed that the new Parliament would have to face up to the debate on own resources (see EUROPE 13392/1). Panayiotis Nicolaides, Director of Research at the EU Tax Observatory, rightly pointed out that taxation is dictated by economic conditions. With the various crises - pandemic, energy, geopolitical - Member States may need to increase their tax revenues, in particular because of their defence spending. A global minimum tax on large fortunes could be a solution. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)