Eversheds comment: US buy in required to strengthen EU hand on tax avoidance

• United Kingdom

06-02-2015

Commenting on news that the EU is set to establish a tax avoidance committee, Ben Jones, tax partner at law firm Eversheds, says:

“The EU has become increasingly active on the issue of multinational taxation over the last couple of years, following the wider international actions being proposed by the OECD to modernise the system of taxation that applies to companies operating across borders. Potentially, the EU has the power to provide the type of multilateral tax reform in a key global economic market that could change corporate behaviour, but in reality tax is a contentious area between member states where broad cooperation is hard to achieve. Tax sovereignty (the right for a nation to control its own tax affairs) is a strongly defended principle for many member states.

"That said, the EU state aid challenges are likely to change the corporate tax planning landscape, as potentially will certain planned changes to some EU directives. A parliamentary committee focusing on tax fairness may well provoke further change that influences corporate behaviour. However, one significant concern with EU tax initiatives is that these do not include the US. Ultimately, and this is the objective of the wider OECD process, to successful change corporate behaviour on a global scale and to avoid potential prejudice to EU-based businesses, US cooperation and buy-in is required.”

• Ben Jones
• Partner
• +44 207 919 4686
• +44 207 919 4686
• Connect with Ben Jones on LinkedIn

< Go back