Modernisation of EU approach to taxing digital businesses
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Modernisation of EU approach to taxing digital businesses
Modernisation of EU approach to taxing digital businesses
Fri 29 Sep 2017
The closing speech at the informal September 16 meeting in Tallinn of the EU Council ministers included comments on the prospect that the CCCTB would help provide a long-term solution to “the issue of taxing digital giants, as it would also address issues such as virtual permanent establishment”. There was also a commitment to set out thinking on more immediate action before the EU digital summit on 29 September, with the aim of having a European Commission proposal by spring 2018. A further commitment was given to arrive at a common EU position on this immediate action by December, in order for the EU to speak with one voice on this issue at the OECD.
There are reports that the interim equalisation tax measure to tax revenues of digital companies, originally proposed by France and supported by Germany Italy and Spain, has now been supported by six further EU Member States (Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Greece, Portugal and Austria). Under the enhanced cooperation procedure (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/summary/glossary/enhanced_cooperation.html) it may be possible for these ten states to go ahead with the introduction of this equalisation tax.
Jean-Claude Juncker’s State of the Union address of 13 September (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-17-3165_en.htm) favoured qualified majority voting (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/summary/glossary/qualified_majority.html) on: common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB), on VAT, on fair taxes for the digital industry and on the financial transaction tax. If adopted this may mean that these tax measures could be implemented across the EU despite some EU member states disagreeing with the measure.
To discuss the potential implications of the above for your group, please get in touch with the Mazars International Tax team.
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