European Commission seeks global corporate tax reform

The European Union plans to soon oblige all EU member states to raise the level of corporate tax. This decision was blocked several times by members of the European Commission, in particular from the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland. However, help came from an unexpected direction.

Brussels has announced that it will try to bypass the veto that these countries have been using for years to stop the bad practice. This solution was suggested by a Dutch MEP: “Certain countries - my own Netherlands, as well as Luxembourg and Ireland - play a key role in organizing tax evasion,” said Paul Tong. – We need to close the main loopholes. The European Commission can take advantage of the fact that this requires not unanimity, but a qualified majority. And then, tax pirates and tax havens will be relatively isolated.”

In mid-July in Luxembourg, the European Court of Justice overturned the European Commission's decision to recover 13 billion euros from Apple for violating European tax regulations. The corporation paid taxes in Ireland at a rate of only 1%. Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Economics, insists on the correctness of Brussels and the need to further combat tax violations, who said that "Multinational digital companies, like everyone else, are obliged to pay their fair share of taxes."

It is highly likely that the European Commission will still manage to make a decision to raise the corporate tax. However, given the sluggishness of the bureaucratic machine of the European Union, as well as the possible confrontation from interested countries, it will not come into force soon.