Hidden profits: the EU's role in supporting an unjust global tax system 2014
"This year, for the first time, each country is also directly compared with its fellow EU member states on four critical issues: the fairness of their tax treaties with developing countries; their willingness to put an end to anonymous shell companies and trusts; their support for increasing th...
| Institution: | ETUI-European Trade Union Institute |
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| Format: | TEXT |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Brussels
2014
Eurodad |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19112081124919302639-Hidden-profits-the-eu-s-role-i.htm |
| Summary: | "This year, for the first time, each country is also directly compared with its fellow EU member states on four critical issues: the fairness of their tax treaties with developing countries; their willingness to put an end to anonymous shell companies and trusts; their support for increasing the transparency of economic activities and tax payments of transnational companies; and their attitude towards letting the poorest countries get a seat at the table when global tax standards are negotiated. This report does not only cover national policies, but also governments’ positions on existing and upcoming EU level laws and global reform proposals.
Overall, the report finds that:
• Practices which facilitate tax dodging by transnational corporations and individuals are widely used, in some cases so governments can claim to be ’tax competitive’. This is creating a ‘race to the bottom’ – meaning that many countries are driving down standards to try to attract transnational corporations to their countries. Some of the countries that have been most successful in attracting companies – Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – are also currently under investigation by the European Commission for making competition-distorting arrangements with transnational companies behind closed doors. Several countries also allow ‘letterbox’ companies and other structures to be set up (so-called Special Purpose Entities – SPEs) which can, and often are, misused for tax dodging purposes.
• European countries have a high number of tax treaties with developing countries, with France and the UK leading the pack respectively with 72 and 66 of such treaties. These treaties often push down the taxation levels on financial transfers out of developing countries, and thus create routes through which transnational corporations can avoid taxation. Of the countries covered by this report, Spain, the UK and Sweden have negotiated the biggest reductions in developing country tax levels through their treaties. Despite several studies proving the negative effects these treaties can have on developing countries, only the Netherlands out of the 15 EU governments covered in this report has so far produced a ‘spillover analysis’ to estimate the impact of these treaties on the world’s poor. Ireland is set to publish a similar study that will hopefully also focus on its tax treaties in the coming months. …" |
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| Physical Description: | 99 p. Digital |