EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TAKES IMPORTANT STEP TO END TAX DODGING
News Hour:
Today the European Parliament voted in favor of specific recommendations aimed at stopping corporate tax avoidance across the European Union. The plenary adopted the report of its special committee on tax rulings, which had been created after the Luxleaks scandal. Oxfam welcomes the parliament’s broad consensus on ending corporate tax abuses and working towards restoring the trust of citizens in the tax system.
Oxfam’s EU Policy Advisor on Inequality and Taxation, Aurore Chardonnet, said, “The TAXE committee has realized the scale of corporate tax dodging as revenue losses could amount to around €160-190 billion in the EU each year. This has social impacts in terms of job losses and cuts in social investment. With eight out of every ten Europeans supporting changes in laws to clamp down on the use of tax havens, it is clear EU citizens are tired of seeing large multinational companies escape their tax duties.
“If we want to stop companies from easily shifting their profits to low tax jurisdictions, we need to know where the money goes. A first step towards transparency would be public country-by-country reporting. That means a change in reporting standards requiring multinational corporations to publicly reveal in which countries they make their profits, where and how much they pay in taxes.”
“The European Parliament has now, for the third time this year, stood up for this to become law. Today’s vote builds on the existing proposal for the Shareholders’ Rights Directive as amended by the European Parliament.”
“Profit-shifting has a devastating effect on developing countries. The world’s poorest states lose more than $100 billion a year in corporate income tax due to profit-shifting by multinational companies, as the TAXE report highlights.
“Tax must remain central to the EU’s political agenda. This is why Oxfam supports the extension of the committee’s mandate and suggests its conversion into a permanent sub-committee. The upcoming proposals of the European Commission on tax regulation can only benefit from the Parliament’s input.”
