The European Commission will present a new package of tax proposals by the end of January to combat tax avoidance by multinationals and tax fraud, Pierre Moscovici the EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, told members of the European Parliament at a meeting of the special committee on tax rulings.
Speaking January 11, Moscovici said the anti-tax avoidance package, or ATAP, will be the cornerstone of the Commission’s work for the coming months. The package will include both legislative and non-legislative measures, and will detail proposals for internal EU strategy, as well as strategies for dealing with countries outside the EU, he said.
One goal of the ATAP is to implement the OECD base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) project work in Europe, Moscovici said. “But we also want to go further,” offering proposals that are more specific and ambitious than BEPS, the official said.
Examples of areas where the Commission intends to more aggressively tackle tax avoidance include anti-hybrid rules and antiabuse rules, he said. In response to questioning, he said the package will include a proposal to address profit participating loans.
Moscovici also said the ATAP will include measures to implement BEPS work on transfer pricing documentation, including country-by-country reporting.
The Commission will wait for the results of an impact assessment on the public release country-by-country reporting before taking any action on that issue, though. If the Commission decides public release is appropriate, it will draft another proposal in the spring, he said.
Moscovici said that although he personally favored making country-by-country data public, the EU should not adopt a measure that would negatively impact EU companies as compared to foreign competitors. He also said that the EU will need to see if it can negotiate some kind of reciprocity with the US in the area.
Moscovici maintained that the Commission has already proposed strong measures to combat multinational tax avoidance through its package on fiscal transparency, released March 2015, and its action plan on corporate taxation, released June 2015.
He also said that “2016 will be the year in which the [common consolidated corporate tax base] CCCTB will be reborn.” The Commission is still planning a two stage launch of the initiative, to increase the odds of its adoption in Europe, he said.
Further, Moscovici said the Commission is moving forward with work on transfer pricing and in recasting the interest and royalties directive.
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