Profit Shifting
Tracking tax evasion has been a global issue for the Group of 20 nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is developing new standards to avoid base erosion and profit shifting. The EU also has tackled the issue from a variety of angles, such as approving a new anti-abuse provision at a finance ministers’ meeting this month and agreeing to revisit patent-box tax breaks.
European Parliament legislators and representatives of 28 EU national governments struck a deal this week to upgrade the bloc’s legislation on corporate transparency, according to a statement. The deal means companies will be forced to disclose their ultimate owners on national registers in European Union nations as the bloc seeks to clamp down on tax dodging, money laundering and terrorism financing.
The commission also expanded an existing tax probe by asking all EU countries to provide information about financial agreements with multinational corporations. The EU is seeking lists of every company granted a so-called tax ruling between 2010 and 2013, as competition chief Margrethe Vestager called for “a full picture” of current practices.
Oxfam said the EU proposals should go further, since many current proposals for collecting and sharing information don’t extend to making the information public. EU officials “haven’t felt the sense of urgency yet” about public outcry over corporate tax dodging, said Catherine Olier, Oxfam’s EU tax expert, in an e-mail.
