On October 29, 2021, the European Commission published a call for proposals to enhance the involvement of civil society in the advocacy, design and implementation of EU actions to combat tax evasion, tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning and to promote fair taxation.
The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is estimated at EUR 1,200,000.
The Commission expects to fund one (1) proposal.
The Commission reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.
Under this call for proposals, the Union grant may not exceed 95% of the total eligible costs of the action. The applicants must guarantee their co-financing of the remaining amount covered by the applicants' own resources or from sources other than the European Union budget.
The winner of the grant is expected to:
· Manage and ensure the smooth running of the EU Tax Observatory;
· Perform and promote original, high-quality research in the area of tax evasion, tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning, with a focus on corporate income taxation;
· Feed, improve and disseminate a public repository of data and analysis on tax evasion, tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning, with a focus on corporate income taxation;
· Participate in the EU and international debate on tax evasion, tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning by providing quality evidence that can inform policy..
Activities to be carried out
The activities to be funded for the EU Tax Observatory cover the following tasks:
· produce evidence and evidence-based recommendations related to fighting tax evasion, tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning;
· feed and improve the publicly-available repository (https://www.taxobservatory.eu/) of data and analysis on tax evasion, tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning in the EU and the effects of policy reform in these domains;
· disseminate available evidence in a user-friendly manner and inform the wider public of issues related to tax fairness, including anti-money laundering rules for business and individual taxpayers;
· provide policymakers with robust and diversified expertise and knowledge/evidence;
· liaise with different international organisations and national administrations on issues related to EU tax and anti-money laundering policy making (i.e. anti-money laundering legislation is necessary to counter tax evasion).
Expected results
In order to cover the tasks presented above, the European Commission considers that applicants must produce, as a minimum, the following deliverables:
· minimum five research/policy papers on the topics mentioned in the appendix at the end of this document, with a minimum of three papers focused on corporate taxation. Additional topics can also be suggested by the applicants;
· improvement and additional data feeding of the website containing the public repository on tax evasion, tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning in the EU and the effects of policy reform in these domains;
· one digital brochure (maximum 10 pages) disseminating data from the public repository in a simple, visually attractive and easy to understand manner for the general public;
· one high-level, 1 day, interactive public event with external stakeholders representing civil society, policy makers (both national and EU) and business organisations (around 150 to 300 participants). The event should be organised in Brussels;
· five small-scale interactive public events with external stakeholders (around 50 to 100 participants) where research is presented. They should be organised in different EU countries, in the local language and English;
· two thematic workshops involving experts, covering the measurement and mitigation of aggressive tax planning measures relevant to the EU.
Description of the organisational structure of the EU Tax Observatory
The optimal set-up of the Observatory would be a team made up of tax professionals, lawyers, researchers, journalists and academics of diverse backgrounds and nationalities. The Observatory should have a few permanent employees only and work with others on the various actions/matters conducted under the call. Therefore, it should have access to a wide network of people committed to the fight against tax avoidance or create one, if this does not exist.
The Observatory should be made up of several different organisations out of which at least one is a non-governmental organisation. As the Observatory should be independent and non-partisan, it should bring together several organisations and economic operators to pursue joint work under the same umbrella/ organisation, thus ensuring that a wide range of competences and skills is brought together and various opinions are taken into consideration.
The Observatory should have a special focus on corporate taxation though work on other categories of taxation is welcome. In its works in this field, the Observatory should be inclusive and bring together non-governmental organisations, academics, national and European policy makers, national experts, as well as businesses to exchange information, experience and best practices.
The Observatory must be transparent about its funding sources and its activities. Is should be innovative and make full use of digital opportunities for a wide dissemination of its actions and results.
The present call for proposals represents the second phase for the implementation of a preparatory action initiated by the European Parliament. A participatory action can last for up to three (3) consecutive years. It is possible that there will be one more call for proposals following the successful implementation of the current call. Applicants must present in their proposal what mechanisms and procedures they will set up in order to ensure the transferability of the results to another possible future winner.
The deadline to apply is January 10, 2022.
More information on the activities, timing and eligibility criteria you can find in the documents that are published here on the Taxation and Customs Union webpage of the European Commission.
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