In conclusions adopted on Tuesday 11 March, European finance ministers meeting in the EU Council asked the European Commission to provide them with an initial report including a ‘roadmap’ of the envisaged work on the tax simplification and decluttering agenda before the end of the third quarter.
They also called on the Commission to “to introduce an operational, pragmatic and ambitious action plan including a feasible timeline on simplification and decluttering in the area of taxation and to report regularly to the Council on the progress of this initiative”. They stressed that such a major initiative should involve “a long-term, well-structured and consistent approach, which requires cooperation between the Commission, the Council, national authorities and stakeholders”.
This request is part of the EU’s wider simplification programme (see other news). With this programme, the EU Council hopes to increase the EU’s competitiveness. The ministers still want to maintain the level of protection against tax fraud and aggressive tax planning.
Current and future tax initiatives must be based on four principles: - reduce the reporting, administrative and regulatory burdens on Member States’ administrations and taxpayers: - eliminate obsolete and overlapping tax rules; - clarify tax legislation; - rationalise and improve the application of tax rules, procedures and reporting obligations.
To read the conclusions adopted: https://aeur.eu/f/fvj (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)