Tax avoidance
EU launches global minimum tax legislation
The EU Commission wants to be a pioneer in the global minimum tax. Photo: Zhang Cheng / XinHua / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The EU has agreed on an ambitious international tax reform with over 130 countries. For the first time there is a concrete legislative proposal to implement this.
The EU is taking the first concrete steps to implement the global minimum tax.
On Wednesday, the responsible European Commission presented a legislative proposal to implement the ambitious international tax reform that the EU had previously agreed on with over 130 other countries. At the same time, the Commission wants to take action against so-called letterbox companies with which high taxes can be avoided.
Tax avoidance should be prevented
According to the Commission, the EU is a global pioneer with the legislative proposal on the minimum tax. The main aim of the reform is to prevent corporate profits from shifting to tax havens. International companies with a turnover of at least 750 million euros per year should therefore pay at least 15 percent tax by 2023 at the latest, regardless of their location. If a company with its subsidiary pays less taxes abroad, the home country can collect the difference. The proposal has to be accepted unanimously by the EU countries.
According to the Commission, another part of the global tax reform is to be concretized next year. This is to ensure that international digital companies like Facebook are not only taxed in their home country, but also where they actually do business.
The proposed regulation against letterbox companies is also intended to avoid tax-saving models for companies. Mailbox companies are usually registered in a country with low taxes – such as Luxembourg – but do their essential business elsewhere. With the new rules, companies in the EU could be identified that have a physical name tag on a mailbox but, for example, no employees in the registered country. They would then also have to pay taxes where they are actually active. If the rules are adopted by EU countries, they would apply from 2024.
European parliamentarian Markus Ferber (CSU) welcomed the proposal. «Some member states have made it their business model to offer a safe haven for letterbox companies and thus to undermine the tax base of other EU states. This practice has to come to an end, ”he said.