EU orders Estonia, Poland to hand over tax ruling data
EU regulators today gave Poland and Estonia a month to hand over details of their tax ruling practices.
It also ordered 15 other countries to provide data on individual tax bills as part of a region-wide investigation.
Pressures on government budgets since the global financial crisis have spurred a crackdown on tax avoidance.
Complaints that deals which help companies cut their tax bills substantially may give them an unfair advantage in breach of European Union rules on state aid have also risen.
The European Commission is investigating Luxembourg’s tax deals with Amazon and Fiat, Apple’s Irish tax agreement, Starbucks’ Dutch deal, and a Belgian tax scheme.
It said today that Poland and Estonia had failed to comply fully with a December request.
“They have only submitted general information but refused to provide a specific and detailed overview of tax rulings issued from 2010 to 2013,” the EU competition watchdog said in a statement.
The two countries may be taken to court if they ignore the EU order.
The Commission also told Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden to provide individual tax rulings.
The EU executive had previously asked for such information from Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Britain.
It said it did not have indications that would merit asking for rulings from Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Latvia and Slovenia.
The Commission can order governments to recover illegal state aid.
