Some EU member states are obstructing the fight against tax avoidance, tax evasion and money laundering, and have “made tax dumping a business model for businesses and high-net-worth individuals”, the PANA committee, set up to probe the Panama Papers, has found.
A new transfer pricing ruling by the Finnish Supreme Court on enterprise resource planning and intra-group services arrangements is expected to set precedents in taxpayers’ favour.
Carmel Peters from New Zealand and Eric Mensah from Ghana were yesterday elected co-chairs of the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters.
The incoming Dutch government on Tuesday announced plans to cut down the corporate tax rate to 21% and abolish the 15% dividend withholding tax. It aims to make the Netherlands more attractive for corporations, but sceptics say there is no link between tax rates and competitiveness.
Amid struggles of reaching a global consensus on taxation of digital companies, EU finance ministers have proposed an equalisation tax, which would tax revenue instead of profits. But issues such as creditability, state aid rules, permanent establishment and double taxation need to be agreed on before the tax can materialise.
A Luxembourg tax ruling allowed Amazon to avoid paying taxes on three quarters of its profits, and endorsed the inflated payment of inter-group royalties, the European Commission said Wednesday. Luxembourg must now collect €250 million ($293 million) plus interest from Amazon.
