The assessment to companies like Google, Facebook or Apple would raise 5 billion a year Google, Facebook and Apple have specialized in locating in a fictitious way their operations in microaffiliates located in territories or countries where corporate tax is low or even practically nil. And they have thus turned… – Continue reading
The European Commission has criticised Luxembourg and six other EU member states for overly favourable tax treatment of multinational corporations. “The @EU_Commission is today stressing the issue of aggressive tax planning in seven EU countries: #Belgium, #Cyprus, #Hungary, #Ireland, #Luxembourg, #Malta and The #Netherlands. #FairTaxation,” Pierre Moscovici, the European finance… – Continue reading
The Government of the Netherlands has announced a comprehensive package of tax anti-avoidance proposals designed to bring the jurisdiction’s rules into line with new European Union anti-avoidance laws and fulfill its obligations under the international BEPS agenda. The plans were detailed in a parliamentary paper sent by State Secretary for… – Continue reading
The European Commission has recommended that the EU Council approve a request from Italy to derogate from the VAT Directive in introducing a mandatory electronic invoicing obligation on all taxable persons established in Italy except exempt small firms. In its request, Italy submitted that introducing an obligation to provide such… – Continue reading
VALLETTA, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) — Malta has generated 518 million euros since it started its citizenship by investment scheme, according to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. Replying to a parliamentary question on Wednesday, Muscat said that of the total revenue generated, 363 million euros had entered in the country’s National Development… – Continue reading
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said “Tonnage tax systems are meant to promote the competitiveness of the EU shipping industry in a global market without unduly distorting competition. I am pleased that Malta committed to adapt its tonnage tax system to achieve this. Moreover, by encouraging the… – Continue reading
Amazon reached a major tax settlement with Italy by agreeing to pay €100 million ($118 million) to the European country in order to put an end to an investigation of potential back taxes it owes that spanned the majority of this year. According to initial reports on the matter, Italian… – Continue reading
The European Commission is launching an investigation into Ikea’s tax construction in the Netherlands. European Commissioner on competition Margrethe Vestager is expected to officially announce the investigation on Tuesday, British newspaper the Financial Times reports. The Swedish furniture company is suspected of evading nearly a billion euros in taxes between… – Continue reading
Luxembourg is challenging a European Union order to recover about €250m in back taxes from Amazon, saying it disagreed with EU state aid regulators’ decision that the US online retailer had received special treatment. The appeal to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest, comes two months after the European Commission… – Continue reading
The Commission has today put forward new guidelines on withholding taxes to help Member States reduce costs and simplify procedures for cross-border investors in the EU. The new Code of Conduct offers solutions for investors who, as a result of how withholding taxes are applied, end up paying taxes twice… – Continue reading
The American Chamber of Commerce in the European Union has criticized the proposals put forward in the European Commission’s recent consultation on options for new tax rules or a new tax on digital firms. The aim of that consultation is to help the Commission to define an approach to the… – Continue reading
Apple, whose CEO Tim Cook likes to talk a big game about how the tech industry should be more socially responsible while overseeing an international tax-avoidance regime that puts Scrooge McDuck’s gold-filled vault/swimming pool to shame, has agreed to repay Ireland $14.6 billion (around €13 billion) in unpaid taxes, the… – Continue reading
Europe’s fierce enforcer of competition rules is threatening tech giants with tough new rules on tax if politicians fail to come to an agreement on changes to the current system. Efforts to amend rules that would apply tax more fairly to firms which largely operate online such as Google, Amazon,… – Continue reading
The European Union Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) has been talked about recently as a solution to the problem of an imperfect pan-EU corporate tax system, which allows large companies, particularly those with a digital presence, to detach profits from value-creation, and pay tax in low-tax jurisdictions. But what… – Continue reading
The EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council has adopted a Directive to create a new system to resolve double taxation disputes between EU Member States. This measure will afford taxpayers a transparent process with clear deadlines applicable to tax authorities involved to resolve cross-border double tax disputes within the EU…. – Continue reading
Inquiry to centre on George Osborne’s 2013 rule change that allows resident multinationals to shift income offshore The EU is to launch an investigation into a British government scheme that may help multinational firms pay less tax, the Guardian has learned. Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition commissioner, will announce on… – Continue reading
EU leaders have not yet made a clear choice about how to make sure digital companies pay their fair share of taxes. At an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday (19 October), they adopted a text that balances the wishes of two groups of countries – and can be interpreted… – Continue reading
European Union plans for a new taxation system for digital companies, such as Skype and Amazon, both of which have European headquarters in Luxembourg, were discussed on Tuesday by EU finance ministers. A report from the European Commission in September said the effective average tax rate for a traditional international… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS — European competition regulators on Wednesday mounted a push against tax avoidance by Silicon Valley giants, announcing plans to take Ireland to court for failing to collect back taxes from Apple and ordering Luxembourg to claim unpaid taxes from Amazon. The effort, which comes as the European Union considers… – Continue reading
LONDON (Reuters) – Facebook (FB.O) reported profits in Britain in 2016 of 58.4 million pounds ($77 million) after the introduction of anti-profit shifting measures but a modest rise in its tax bill shows the challenge Europe faces in working out how to tax technology giants. Facebook said in filings with… – Continue reading
The cash would be enough to fund the entire health service for a year Ireland faces legal action for failing to recover €13billion euros in tax from US tech giant Apple after European competition authorities blasted the country over a sweetheart deal. The European Commission said Ireland had not recouped… – Continue reading
The EU is deeply divided over how to increase the tax take from tech giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon, who have recently come under fire for being perceived as not paying their fair share of taxes A controversial set of reforms spearheaded by French president Emmanuel Macron propose… – Continue reading
EU nations led by France and Italy reinforced the need for an “equalization tax” or turnover tax on large internet companies such as Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., and suggested they would use special legislative procedures to impose one in the event all 28 EU-member countries don’t back the levy…. – Continue reading
The European Commission is preparing a new directive on the cross-border transfer of company headquarters, a move that could have far-reaching implications for other areas of corporate governance, including tax planning and cross-border mergers, EURACTIV has learned. With Brexit on the horizon, UK companies are busy weighing their options for… – Continue reading
Markus J Beyrer, Director General of Business Europe, has expressed concerns about the proposed introduction of a European Union turnover tax on digital businesses. On September 21, the European Commission launched a new agenda to ensure that the digital economy is taxed “in a fair and growth-friendly way.” This could… – Continue reading
Appropriate Use of Country-by-Country Reports The OECD has now published Guidance (available here) on the appropriate use of Country-by-Country Reports (‘CbCRs’) by national tax authorities. This is in response to some valid MNE concerns that tax authorities may misuse CbCRs. “Appropriate use” is clarified as being for (i) high-level transfer… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission said the EU should proceed with an overhaul of taxes on digital firms even if the rest of the rich world did not follow suit, a draft report said. The document is part of an EU push to tap more revenues from online multinationals… – Continue reading
Japanese multinational companies worry that filing their first country-by-country reports in 2018 will lead to a barrage of transfer pricing audits by developing countries. Companies are currently preparing their first country-by-country reports that must be filed with the National Tax Agency by the end of March 2018. Japan adopted country-by-country… – Continue reading
The proposals plan to tax giant digital companies on turnover rather than profits EU finance ministers have agreed to step up technical work on harmonising the taxation of the giant digital companies with a view to debating “possible solutions” at their December meeting. The ministerial consensus was a significant setback… – Continue reading
Amazon has refused to reveal how much it paid in total UK tax last year after it emerged it actually got a rebate of £1.3million. The online giant, which three years ago pledged to stop using a controversial tax avoidance scheme, admitted it had paid just £7million in corporation tax… – Continue reading
The European Commission launched legal proceedings against Portugal, Bulgaria, and Cyprus for not adopting, in their national laws, European Union legislation requiring all EU countries to exchange tax rulings granted to multilateral companies. The legislation was adopted in the wake of the 2014 LuxLeaks scandal that revealed more than 100… – Continue reading
Bulgaria is among European Union countries that the European Commission has sent a reasoned opinion because of its failure to communicate the transposition of new measures on the automatic exchange of tax rulings between EU tax authorities. The step was announced by the European Commission on July 13, among its… – Continue reading
The European Union has published a letter to EU heads of state, laying down a direct challenge to the Trump administration, on the issues of tax avoidance ahead of the G20 summit this weekend. The joint letter, sent by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council president Donald Tusk… – Continue reading
The European Parliament on Tuesday passed a directive requiring big multinationals to report tax and financial data separately in all countries where they operate, a measure aimed at tackling tax avoidance and profit shifting to countries with lower taxes. The new rules are part of a wider overhaul of tax… – Continue reading
The Juncker Commission has made the fight against tax avoidance, money laundering and terrorism financing one of its priorities. Today, the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive enters into force. It strengthens the existing rules and will make the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing more effective. It also improves transparency… – Continue reading
European Union-based multinational companies that exceed consolidated revenue of 750 million euros ($840 million) for two consecutive years would have to report publicly on taxes paid, profits earned, and persons employed on a country-by-country basis, under a proposal from Malta. Malta holds the EU presidency, a position it will turn… – Continue reading
A Europe-wide crackdown on tax avoidance schemes is set to have a “chilling” effect on recruiters and intermediaries marketing such schemes. The Guardian reported this week that the European Commission will publish proposals tomorrow to force financial intermediaries to automatically disclose any new cross-border tax schemes offered to clients. According… – Continue reading
The European Commission will be forced to draw up a new blacklist of countries that facilitate money laundering after the European Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the latest effort that failed to consider countries that enable tax evasion. EU lawmakers voted 392-80, with 207 abstentions, to reject the list that includes 11… – Continue reading
The Revenue Commissioners have today, 16 May 2017, issued detailed user guides on automatic exchange of information reporting requirements for Irish financial institutions covering both FATCA and CRS/DAC2 reporting obligations. The new guidelines set out in detail the process for filing FATCA and CRS/DAC2 returns, including the new functionality for… – Continue reading
The EU’s plan for the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) should be suspended until a country-by-country analysis of its likely impact is undertaken by the European Commission – according to Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes. Mr Hayes said he has written to the EU commissioner for economic and financial… – Continue reading
New measures targeting trust companies and banks in their role of helping to create offshore companies, such as the more than 200,000 exposed in the year-old Panama Papers, should be the priority for EU legislators in their efforts to crack down on the use of tax haven intermediaries, according to… – Continue reading
The European Commission wants stricter guidelines for the “tax privileges’’ some European Union countries permit within special economic zones in their jurisdictions, to enhance economic development. The confidential proposal for the guidelines, seen by Bloomberg BNA, is currently under discussion within the EU’s Code of Conduct Group for Business Taxation,… – Continue reading
The European Parliament’s Panama Papers investigative committee is preparing for a “fact-finding” visit with counterparts in the U.S. Congress, as well as officials from the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service. The European Union lawmakers’ four-day U.S. trip, which begins March 21, will include a visit to Delaware for meetings… – Continue reading
Countries that end up on the European Union’s list of tax havens could subject companies operating within their borders to tax sanctions—such as withholding taxes and denied deductions for royalty payments—damaging the businesses’ ability to offset losses in the jurisdictions. Following a March 1 meeting, politicians identified a range of… – Continue reading
Apple, which was recently slapped with a $14 bn tax bill for its activities in Ireland has now filed a 14-point appeal against the ruling. The EC had filed a case accusing Ireland of giving “state aid” to Apple. The European Commission (EC) charged Apple on various grounds, including tax… – Continue reading
Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan has criticized the EU’s proposals for a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) and public country-by-country (CbC) reporting as “against the BEPS consensus.” In a speech to an event on corporation tax, Noonan said that the consensus over the OECD’s BEPS proposals must hold and… – Continue reading
EU member states sent a letter to 92 countries on Wednesday (1 February) informing them that they will be “screened” with a view to inclusion in a future “blacklist” of tax havens. The list of the countries that have been contacted is not public, but EUobserver understands that it is… – Continue reading
Multinationals owe responsibility to a wider group than their shareholders As the Apple tax case moves towards the European Union courts, €13 billion has been transferred to Ireland. The implications of the case will effect how multi-national companies implement taxes across Europe. has been accused of “bending the rules” in… – Continue reading
The European Commission has put forward a proposal to allow member states to expand their use of the value-added tax “reverse charge mechanism” for fraud-prone goods. The proposal was first unveiled last month, and was presented to a meeting of the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council on January 27…. – Continue reading
Multinational companies headquartered in Germany worry that when they report their global tax and profits for 2016, some countries will leak their country-by-country reports to the press. German parents of multinational groups with annual consolidated group revenue of at least 750 million euros ($797 million) are required to file, with… – Continue reading
