The tax proposals put on the table by the European Commission today represent two steps forward and two big steps backward according to the European Trade Union Confederation.
Two small step forwards
- Obligatory sharing of information on how much tax multinational companies pay
- Establishing the principle in European law of paying tax on profits where they are generated
Two steps backward
- The information on tax will not be shared with the public – only tax authorities
- Tax will be prevented from being transferred to another tax regime only when the difference in corporate tax is more than 40%
“This is a crackdown on tax avoidance with giant loopholes” said Veronica Nilsson, ETUC Deputy General Secretary. “The Commission has acted on tax avoidance after a scandal was revealed by investigative journalism, and the public were outraged. So the Commission wants to be seen to act, while closing the door on any more embarrassing revelations. The tax advisors of the multinationals will be laughing all the way to their offshore banks.”
