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This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission today proposed a series of measures to modernise and make the EU’s Value-Added Tax (VAT) system work better for businesses and more resilient to fraud by embracing and promoting digitalisation. Today’s proposal also aims to address challenges in the area of […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has today proposed a debt-equity bias reduction allowance, or DEBRA, to help businesses access the financing they need and to become more resilient. This measure will support businesses by introducing an allowance that will grant to equity the same tax treatment […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has today adopted a Communication on Business Taxation for the 21st century to promote a robust, efficient and fair business tax system in the European Union. It sets out both a long-term and short-term vision to support Europe’s recovery from the […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has today adopted an ambitious new Tax Package to ensure that EU tax policy supports Europe’s economic recovery and long-term growth. The Package is built on the twin pillars of fairness and simplicity. Fair taxation remains a top priority for the […]
This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Ludvig Wier, Postdoctoral researcher, UC Berkeley New research suggests 40% of multinational profits are shifted to tax havens and that 10% of the world’s largest multinational firms are responsible for 98% of this activity; The result is $200 […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today the Commission decided to refer Portugal to the Court of Justice of the European Union for taxing used cars that are imported from other Member States more heavily than used cars purchased on the Portuguese market. Under EU rules, no Member State can […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Commission decided today to refer Hungary to the Court of Justice for failing to apply the minimum EU threshold for excise duty on cigarettes set out in EU rules on manufactured tobacco. Hungary was allowed a long transitional period until 31 December 2017 […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today the Commission has decided to refer Germany to the Court of Justice of the EU for not applying the EU Value Added Tax (VAT) scheme for farmers correctly. Under current EU rules, Member States can apply a flat-rate VAT scheme (Council Directive 2006/112/EC) […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. New EU rules come into force today to ensure quicker and more effective resolution of tax disputes between Member States, making life easier and offering much more tax certainty for businesses and individuals experiencing double taxation issues. The eagerly awaited new system will help […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Commission decided on 06 June 2019 to refer SPAIN to the Court of Justice of the EU for imposing disproportionate penalties on Spanish taxpayers for the failure to report assets held in other EU and EEA States (“Modelo 720”). Currently, Spain requires resident […]
This article is brought to you in association with OECD. International efforts to improve transparency via automatic exchange of information on financial accounts are improving tax compliance and delivering concrete results for governments worldwide, according to new data released today by the OECD. More than 90 jurisdictions participating in a global transparency initiative under the OECD’s […]
This article is brought to you in association with OECD. The international community has agreed on a road map for resolving the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy, and committed to continue working toward a consensus-based long-term solution by the end of 2020, the OECD announced today. The 129 members of the OECD/G20 […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. The European Parliament on Tuesday adopted a detailed roadmap towards fairer and more effective taxation, and tackling financial crimes. The recommendations, adopted by 505 votes in favour, 63 against and 87 abstentions, were prepared over a year by Parliament’s Special Committee on Financial Crimes, […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Parliament’s special tax committee on Wednesday adopted a detailed roadmap towards fairer and more effective taxation, and tackling financial crimes. The recommendations adopted by the Special Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance (TAX3) range from overhauling the system for dealing with […]
This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Sean Fleming, Senior Writer, Formative Content One of the most taxing of all the unintended consequences prompted by the rise of the digital economy has been the question of taxing the large, multinational firms that dominate the sector. But […]
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. The plenary proposed widening the scope of the directives on taxing digital businesses operating in the EU. The European Parliament adopted both its two opinions on the proposals for Council directives on the corporate taxation of a significant digital presence and a Digital Services […]
This article is brought to you in association with OECD. Tax revenues in advanced economies have continued to increase, with taxes on companies and personal consumption representing an increasing share of total tax revenues, according to new OECD research. The 2018 edition of the OECD’s annual Revenue Statistics publication shows that the OECD average tax-to-GDP ratio […]
The center right and center left German mainstream political parties agreed yesterday evening to form a new grand coalition government. It will be the third time since 2005 the two Christian parties and the socialists jointly govern their country. The socialists will control the Finance, Foreign and Labor ministries, with Martin Schulz, the Social Democratic […]
At the third day of the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos, the session “Taxation without Borders: A Fair Share from Multinationals” took place where tax-base erosion and profit shifting policies were discussed in view of the Panama Papers and the fact that countries lose tones of money when multinationals implement such strategies. Emerging countries […]
Last Monday, the G20 meeting in Hangzhou – the capital of China’s eastern Zhejiang province – the first gathering of the 20 world leaders to be held in the vast country, was not marked by the determination to face up to economic misery and the pitiless wars in Syria, Libya, South Soudan, Yemen, Mali and […]
Last Tuesday, the White House and the US Treasury in concerted actions issued farfetched statements against the EU Commission. The EU executive’s decision ordered the US giant technology company Apple Inc. to pay additional taxes of up to €13 billion in Ireland. These instant and strong reactions clearly denote that the US sees this Brussels […]
The Panama Papers did not offer to the world community much more news than most people already knew. For example, the ‘revelation’ that a close friend to the Russian President Vladimir Putin was enormously rich without having labored for his wealth, is no news at all. Every Russian or informed citizen in the entire world […]
The European Parliament once more honored its role as the authentic exponent of the will of the European citizens. Last Tuesday it dismissed as a “missed opportunity” the EU Council’s decision to water down the mandatory exchange of the ‘tax rulings’ between member states. A ‘tax ruling’ is a special taxation arrangement accorded to a […]
Eurostat, the EU statistical service, published last week data on the evolution of tax revenues for the EU member states. A first reading reveals two very interesting developments. Both are connected to the economic crisis which hit Eurozone in 2009-2010. In 2010 tax revenues decreased as a result of the crisis. However, despite the fact […]
It is customary for the European Union, when the club cannot arrive at a decision acceptable by everybody, the outcome is a distorted compromise. Of course, the burning issue of the resolution of failing banks could not depart from this rule yesterday at the ECOFIN Council, with the 28 ministers of Finance discussing this issue […]
The European Commission, after having facilitated for decades the tax avoidance and evasion practices of multinationals with the ‘Parent-Subsidiary Directive’, yesterday decided to just reduce the size of the extra-large loop holes the big multinationals use for years to avoid and evade taxation. With a Press release issued yesterday, the Commission almost recognised that it […]
As the European Sting predicted early yesterday morning, the European Council meeting of 22 May, which regrouped once more the 27 EU leaders, turned out poor results on both subjects that occupied its agenda, namely ‘energy’ and ‘taxation’. Sting writer Maria Milouv wrote, “the European Council of the 27 EU leaders has only ‘energy’ and […]
It is a disgrace for the European Union’s political elite to consciously block the internal exchange of information between the member states authorities and banks on matters related to tax evasion and fraud. This is exactly what the 27 EU minister of Finance did yesterday in the Ecofin Council in Brussels. This unbelievable political decision […]
At a time when labour is under serious pressures and threats in the entire European Union, taxation on labour wages continuous not only being the main source of government income but always increasing. Despite the fact that unemployment has reached historic records in the euro area, at 12.1% in March with one out of two […]
Algirdas Šemeta, the European Commissioner responsible for Taxation Audit and Anti-fraud announced yesterday in very low tones the creation of a new consultative committee in Brussels, under the name of “tax good governance platform”. This was a very disproportionate outcome, after the widely advertised Commission’s initiative to crack down on tax evasion in the European […]
According to Eurostat, the EU statistical service, tax payments in absolute terms, kept rising in the Eurozone after 2009 and surpassed the pre-crisis levels in 2011. Given that all along this period most of the euro area member states applied austerity measures, by cutting social spending, it is common knowledge by now that the extra […]
Eurostat, the EU’s statistical service, released data on Eurozone’s foreign trade showing that during 2012, euro area trade in goods recorded a surplus of €81.8 billion, outperforming the most optimistic predictions. This is not however the only good news for Eurozone external accounts for last year. Traditionally Eurozone records also a hefty surplus in international […]
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