EU Member States are considering the new own resources proposed by the European Parliament. At a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 2 June, the EU Council working party on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) discussed the three potential taxes advocated by MEPs, on the basis of estimates presented by the European Commission.
In a document published on Friday 29 May by Agence Europe (see EUROPE 13877/2), the European Commission had in fact assessed the revenue from these possible taxes on cryptocurrency, digital giants and online gambling. The subject will be raised again on Friday 5 June in Coreper.
At this stage, of the three proposals, all of which involve political and technical obstacles, it is difficult to say which is the furthest advanced. “Reading between the lines, the document presented by the European Commission seems to be telling us that these ideas, however interesting they may be, are not really capable of fundamentally changing the budget equation”, a European diplomat said on Tuesday. “In view, in particular, of the technical difficulties they present, it will also be difficult to reach an agreement to implement them in time for the next MFF”, the source judged.
With regard to online gambling, the European Commission document thus notes that “there is neither a harmonised definition (...) nor EU legislation specifically governing this sector. (...) Operators or consumers could [be] encourag[ed] to turn to unlicensed platforms located outside the EU”, it also indicates.
The same limitation, linked to the risk of circumventing the tax, is also mentioned with regard to the potential tax on crypto-assets.
As for the tax on digital giants, it appears that the European Commission prefers its own proposal for a Contribution of Large Companies (‘Corporate Resource for Europe’, or ‘Core’). “At this stage, the European Commission seems attached to Core, but this proposal is still the subject of significant opposition”, another diplomat sums up. Germany, in particular, is reluctant.
The Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU will soon unveil its quantified basis for negotiation (‘negotiation box’) on the MFF. Some rumours point to Monday 8 June for the release of this eagerly awaited document, a date which the Presidency has not, however, confirmed.
Read the European Commission document: https://aeur.eu/f/m3x (Original version in French by Clément Solal)