A number of tax issues will be on the table during the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council, which begins on Monday 1 July.
In its programme, Hungary has identified its priority areas: fighting tax evasion; ensuring legal certainty for taxpayers; supporting the European Union’s international engagement. “In the area of taxation, we see an opportunity to enhance the competitiveness of European businesses through digitalisation, the efficient use of information and simplification“, it says.
Direct taxation. With regard to the ‘UNSHELL’ proposal aimed at preventing the misuse of shell companies for tax purposes, Hungary will be able to resume discussions based on a new approach presented at the high-level meeting on tax issues at the Council of the European Union on Tuesday 11 June (see EUROPE 13431/12).
The Presidency will also have to work on the directive on transfer pricing, which has yet to convince the Member States (see EUROPE 13336/15). According to the ‘Ecofin’ report to the European Council on tax issues, dated Monday 24 June, a large number of Member States have indicated that it could be useful to set up an ‘EU Transfer Pricing Platform’, i.e. a new ‘soft law’ forum. A more in-depth discussion will be needed on the main aspects to be debated, such as the platform’s composition and its institutional structure, mandate and governance.
The proposal for a ‘HOT’ directive, aimed at simplifying the taxation of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (see EUROPE 13248/21), has raised serious concerns about administrative tax planning. A more general discussion has been called for, before any further technical progress can be made.
A similar discussion would also seem to be in order with regard to a ‘Council Directive on Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation’ (BEFIT) (see EUROPE 13420/21).
Indirect taxation. Hungary will have the delicate task of convincing Estonia to lift its veto on the directive on value added tax (VAT) on digital platforms, included in the ‘ViDA’ proposal, which aims to reduce the administrative burden on businesses and fight against fraud (see EUROPE 13437/1).
The Presidency will also have to continue work on revising the Energy Taxation Directive, based on the latest compromise proposed by Belgium (see EUROPE 13395/6).
Finally, in October, the EU’s ‘black’ list of jurisdictions that do not cooperate for tax purposes will be updated (see EUROPE 13418/14).
Read the Hungary programme: https://aeur.eu/f/crs
Read the Ecofin report on tax issues: https://aeur.eu/f/csn (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)