European Parliament
FISC Committee holds hearing on international tax reform
On October 28, the new FISC Committee of the European Parliament held a hearing with the Commission and OECD on international tax reform.
At the hearing, OECD’s Pascal Saint-Amans pointed to the (now confirmed) Biden administration and that it might take until March for the OECD to find out what its stance on Pillars 1 and 2 are. He did point out that both political parties in the US have said that they would retaliate in case of unilateral digital taxes. Mr. Saint-Amans also argued that EU countries could already go ahead with Pillar 2, and that it is understandable that the OECD work is delayed by a few months given COVID and the US elections.
DG TAXUD’s Benjamin Angel contended that OECD needs time until mid-2021, but that this would be the last deadline for the European Commission. Answering to a question by MEP Marek Belka (S&D/Poland), he also underlined that the Commission will need a new own resource based on digital tax income.
FISC Committee publishes details of work ahead
European Parliament’s FISC Committee has published its work plan for the months ahead. According to the work plan, notably the following are to be expected:
- Non-legislative own initiative reports on EU Code of Conduct, digital taxation and sustainable tax system in a post-COVID context
- Legislative own initiative report on the Commission’s July tax Action Plan with its 25 announced policy actions
- Implementation report on the VAT Directive and VAT gap
- Studies on harmful tax practices in the EU, the risks and benefits of technology in tax, evaluation of EU’s tax Directives and more
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FISC Committee discusses role of tax policies in COVID recovery
On 16 November, European Parliament’s FISC Committee held a hearing on the role of tax policies in post-COVID economic recovery. The hearing hosted as external speakers Grace Perez Navarro from the OECD, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, Professor at the University of Lisbon and Liina Carr, ETUC Confederal Secretary.
At the hearing, Ms. Navarro emphasised that governments will have to look at different angles of tax policy to support post-COVID recovery, ranging from fighting tax avoidance to environmental and labour taxation. Professor Sarmento called for tax support measures for SMEs, and to create minimum and maximum corporate tax rates (25%-50%). Ms. Carr among other measures underlined the importance of public country by country reporting (CBCR).
In their reactions, FISC MEPs stressed the need to reduce the tax burden on SMEs, shifting it instead to those who can and should pay more taxes. The discussion thus focused on ways to develop the financial transactions tax (FTT), recalibrate corporate taxation and develop green taxes. Read more
FISC publishes motion for resolution on EU list of tax havens
FISC Committee has published its first draft motion for resolution, prepared by the Committee Chair MEP Paul Tang. The resolution, which focuses on the EU list of “tax havens”, laments the removal of jurisdictions such as Cayman Islands from the EU list. It also calls for EU member states to be subjected to the same criteria than the ones set for third countries.
The draft resolution will be subject to further amendments, and will be voted in the ECON Committee (under which FISC Committee functions) on 12 December. The resolution is legally non-binding. Read more
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