OXFORD CENTRE FOR BUSINESS TAXATION

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1 OXFORD CENTRE FOR BUSINESS TAXATION Oxford, 23 March 2006 "The European Commission's business taxation agenda" SPEAKING NOTES Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to be here tonight. I am grateful to the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation for the invitation and for the opportunity to address this distinguished audience. The Centre is filling a gap by bringing together academics, policy-makers and business people. So I congratulate you and I wish the Centre further success in the future. The subject of this conference, "the impact of business tax in an international context", is very topical and important for the Commission and for me as a Commissioner for taxation and customs policy. In the framework of the subject, I want to focus on three issues: First, what should the EU tax policy priorities be? Second, what role should the EU have? 1

2 And third, how should we work out our policies? So first, let s look at what our priorities should be. For the European Commission and for me, the priority is what we call in Brussels the Lisbon strategy or, to be more explicit, the strategy of growth, jobs and competitiveness. The Lisbon objectives are of paramount importance. The future of the European integration and the future of Europe depend on the rate of growth and the quantity and quality of new jobs. If we are not able to compete successfully with the US, Japan, and China, with Russia and India, we cannot play a decisive role in shaping the future of mankind and cannot meet the expectations of our citizens who want better life, more security and solidarity, who want sustainability. If we want to make Europe a more attractive place in which to invest and to work, we should make business able to take full advantage of the single market, which is the largest competitive single market in the world. If we want to make the single market to function smoothly, we have to eliminate those tax obstacles that are induced by the 25 different tax systems. Simplification of tax rules, whenever it is possible, tax harmonisation where and when it is appropriate, coordination where and when it is necessary, cooperation between the Member States and their tax authorities can promote competitiveness, growth and employment. I fully understand and respect that governments insist on their taxsovereignty. But tax-sovereignty should not have a detrimental impact on the competitiveness of our economy. It should not be a handicap for the Community in comparison to the USA, Japan, or China. 2

3 The question is: what tax policy initiatives would bring us closer to achieving the Lisbon objectives? What measures would result in the reduction of the tax cost of economic restructuring; in the elimination of double taxation in cross-border business activities; in the reduction of compliance costs and administrative burden, the reduction of red tape; and, more generally, in the removal of tax obstacles to cross-border economic activities. I do believe that all these objectives would help our companies to face international competition. The next question that logically follows: what role can the European Union play in the promotion of these objectives? Of course, it is up to each individual Member State to shape a right tax environment an environment that is conducive to competitiveness, growth and jobs. But the EU can play a useful and important supporting role. Perhaps a more sophisticated role, than one may think. I know that some Member States have the feeling that Brussels, the Commission, wants to harmonise everything. But it is certainly not the case. The Commission does not want to harmonise anything in the field of taxation for the sake of harmonisation. We prefer harmonisation only in specific fields where it will result in a better functioning of the internal market in the reduction of compliance- 3

4 costs and the administrative burdens, in higher growth, more jobs and enhanced competitiveness. Regulations and directives have their place. But they are not always the best way to achieve the objectives. We frequently put much greater emphasis on soft laws, on coordination and cooperation. If harmonisation and coordination of national policies can be achieved without legislation, so much the better. But in some cases, legislation will clearly continue to be the best option. So let us look at what we are doing to promote our objectives. Let s look at the four priority areas I mentioned: First, reducing the tax cost of economic restructuring. To do this, the EU recently amended the Merger Directive. It now covers a wider range of companies, including those established under the European Company Statute, and a wider range of operations. The amended Directive makes cross-border economic restructuring easier. Consequently, it allows companies to react more quickly to market developments. Second, reducing or eliminating double taxation in cross-border business. We achieved progress towards this aim with our proposal for a Code of Conduct on the way the Arbitration Convention should work. This was based on the work of the EU's Joint Transfer Pricing Forum, which brings together transfer-pricing experts from the private sector and the national tax authorities. 4

5 Thanks to this soft-law initiative, the Member States have agreed to effectively eliminate double taxation due to transfer-pricing adjustments within three years. And they have committed themselves to ensuring that, during the resolution of cross-border disputes, tax collection can be suspended under the same conditions as in domestic appeals and litigation. Third, simplifying the tax systems in order to reduce compliance costs. To simplify compliance with VAT regulations, the Commission has proposed an amendment to the sixth VAT Directive. The one-stop shop system would allow traders to fulfil all their VAT obligations for all EU-wide activities in the Member State where they are established. Traders could use a single VAT number for all supplies throughout the EU and make their VAT declarations via a single electronic portal. The declarations would then be submitted automatically to the various Member States where the traders supply goods or services. This amendment is now on the table of the Council, where the required unanimity will be hopefully achieved during the Austrian Presidency. Lastly, removing the tax obstacles to cross-border economic activities. A number of initiatives are in the pipeline to achieve this on a wider scale. 5

6 In the long term, the most ambitious and the most significant measure would be the introduction of a common consolidated corporate tax base for all EU-wide economic activities. The Commission has set up a working group with experts from the national tax authorities. It is carrying out preparatory work on a legislative proposal for a common consolidated corporate tax base. I want to emphasise that the harmonisation would only cover the tax base and would not relate to the tax rates. Setting the rates would remain in the competence of the Member States. A common consolidated tax base would promote transparency, clarity and simplification. It will bring a significant reduction in compliance costs. It will allow cross-border offsetting of profits and losses. And it will solve the current tax problems linked to cross-border activities and the restructuring of groups of companies. The Commission will shortly issue a communication taking stock of the progress made so far in the technical preparations and will set out the next steps as we see them. The best-case scenario would be a unanimous agreement on a common consolidated tax base and its EU-wide application by all Member States. If unanimity will not be achieved, the Commission will examine the possibility of resorting to the enhanced cooperation mechanism. There is ample evidence that existing tax obstacles hit the SMEs particularly hard and their compliance costs are relatively much higher 6

7 than those of larger companies. Therefore the Commission proposed last December the Home State Taxation pilot project. It aims to cut red tape and to enable business to take advantage of the single market, simplifying the tax environment for small and medium-sized companies when doing business across borders. The concept is based on the idea of voluntary mutual recognition of tax rules by interested EU Member States. It would mean that the profits of a group of companies active in more than one Member State would be computed according to the rules of the Home State of the parent company or head office of the group. The aggregate profits would then be apportioned among the two Member States concerned using a simple formula and each Member State would apply its own national tax rate. Member States that have a similar corporate tax base and are interested in promoting their SMEs could apply this solution relatively easily on a bilateral or multilateral basis. In the short term, our main priority is to help Member States make their tax systems compatible with each others' and with the EC Treaty. Over the past few months, the impact of judgments of the European Court of Justice on Member States' direct tax systems has attracted a lot of attention. I think much of the fall-out from recent Court rulings could have been avoided if Member States had been more pro-active. They should have made sure that their tax rules did not discriminate against residents from other Member States and did not restrict the 7

8 exercise of freedom of movement for goods, persons, capital and services on the single market. I am not suggesting that we need to lay down uniform harmonised tax rules at Community level. What is needed is to coordinate them in such a way that the Member States achieve their national tax policy objectives in compliance with Community law. Coordination should ensure that Member States eliminate discrimination and international double taxation, both of which have no place on a true single market. It can also eliminate unintentional double non-taxation and can promote combating tax avoidance and evasion. The Commission will continue to put its views forward through communications and other soft law initiatives. The Member States should cooperate with each other. Only if they are prepared to do so and put the coordinated solutions they agree into effect can they collectively regain the fiscal sovereignty they want to retain. I believe this is much more effective than waiting for the Court to strike again. Now let me come to my last point: the way we develop tax policy. My message is quite clear: our policies should be based on a profound analysis. 8

9 Tax policy debates in the EU and its Member States are sometimes driven by politics or ideological beliefs rather than facts and figures. I hope the new Centre for Business Taxation will help to change the situation. Let me give you just one example of where I think further targeted research could be beneficial to the policy-making process. Everyone seems to agree that research, development and innovation will be crucial to our economic success in the future. At present, the Member States have very different approaches to the tax treatment of R&D expenditure. There is a lot of scope for detailed review and analysis. But what strikes me, there doesn t seem to be any serious scientific study on the tax rules that work the best. We are missing an opportunity to identify best practice and learn from each other. But I am sure that researchers, tax consultants and tax practitioners have lots to contribute to this debate. And I believe researchers should have more input in the policy debate. All the Commission s legislative proposals are accompanied by impact assessments. These set out the reasons why an alternative option has been retained and its likely impact. And here again, independent research would be invaluable for such assessments. 9

10 Ladies and gentlemen, I am confident that the Conference tomorrow and the future work of the Centre for Business Taxation will make a valuable contribution to this work. The fact that business is sponsoring this research clearly shows that there is a need to be met. So I would like to end by inviting you academics, business representatives and government officials to engage actively in the European tax policy debate. The door of the Commission is open. Most of the documents we produce can be found on our website. We are interested in your views and would certainly benefit from your experience and your expertise. Thank you for your attention. 10

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