(February 18, 2015) 

On February 18, 2015 the European Commission issued a press release by which it announced its intentions to present a so-called Tax Transparency Package in March 2015.

The College of Commissioners held a first orientation debate on possible key actions to ensure a fairer and more transparent approach to taxation in the EU. According to the press release the Commission agreed that a key objective is to ensure that companies are taxed where their economic activities generating the profits are performed and cannot avoid paying their fair share through aggressive tax planning. In this respect, there was strong consensus in the College that a particular focus must be on improving tax transparency in the area of corporate taxation. To this end, the College of Commissioners agreed to present a Tax Transparency Package in March 2015.

According to the press release, the Commission will propose legislation next month to extend the automatic exchange of information on tax rulings. The European Commission states that under current EU rules, Member States share very little information about rulings concerning their corporate tax regimes, which are often very complex. According to the Commission this makes it difficult for tax authorities to assess where a company's real economic activity takes place, and to apply tax rules fairly on that basis.

According to European Commission, the March proposal will be accompanied by a wider set of measures to increase tax transparency; today's orientation debate considered various legislative and non-legislative options.

The press release furthermore states that next month’s Tax Transparency package is just the beginning, with more work to come in this area during 2015. The Commission will present a second package of measures dealing with fair and efficient corporate taxation this summer, which will also take into account current initiatives by the G20 and OECD to tackle tax avoidance.

Click here to be forwarded to the press release as issued by the European Commission.

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