(January 18, 2015) 

On January 17, 2015 several newspapers published a joint article/opinion that was sent in by EU commissioners Margrethe Verstager and Pierre Moscovici. Unfortunately the letter was not published on the website of the European Commission (and by that providing access to it for all media) but sent to a selected group of media channels.

In their article letter the Commissioners admit:

“For the record, tax rulings are not a distorting instrument as such. Almost all EU countries use this fiscal instrument to provide companies with legal certainty for their tax matters. However, there are allegations that the tax ruling instrument may have been misused to the benefit of big corporations.”

In their article/opinion the Commissioners a.o. furthermore state that the Commission is committed to reviving its proposal for a common consolidated corporate tax base. This would mean that a group active in more than one EU country would have to worry about only one common set of rules for its tax declaration; the states hosting the group’s subsidiaries would share the tax among them. While allowing for fruitful competition on tax rates, this proposal would eradicate a lot of current possibilities for aggressive tax planning.

For those interested in the full text of the article/opinion of Ms. Vestager and Mr. Moscovici: it can be found on the websites of ICIJ Members like Trouw, The Guardian, The Irish Times and the Süddeutsche Zeitung (Union Aid given by the European Commission?)

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