42 Amendments of Paul TANG related to 2018/2121(INI)
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Deplores the fact that some EU Member States confiscate the tax base of other Member States by attracting profits generated elsewhere, thereby allowing companies to artificially lower their tax base; upholds that this practice not only harms the principle of EU solidarity, but also produces a wealth redistribution towards multinationals and their shareholders, at the expense of EU citizens; supports the important work by academics and journalists who help to shed light on these practices;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Stresses that between 1985 and 2018, the global average statutory corporate tax rate has fallen from 49% to 24%1a ; notes that nominal corporate tax rates have decreased by 46% since 2000 at EU level –from an average of 32% in 2000 to 21,9% in 20181b; is concerned about a growing race to the bottom on nominal corporate tax rates at both international and EU levels; regrets that international tax reform such as G20/OECD led BEPS project did not touch upon this unfair tax competition; calls for a second set of international tax reforms aiming at tackling tax competition among countries and ensuring a fair allocation of taxing rights; underlines it is necessary to give a greater role to the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters in the next reform of international tax rules; _________________ 1a Tørsløv, Wier and Zucman ‘Themissing profits of nations’, National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 24701, 2018. 1b Taxation trend in the EU, Table 3:Top statutory corporate income tax rates (including surcharges), 1995- 2018,European Commission 2018
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 c (new)
Paragraph 16 c (new)
16 c. Affirms that a fair and effective solution to tax dumping and aggressive tax competition would reside in the setting of a minimum corporate tax rate; calls for the adoption of a coordinated level of minimum effective taxation at European level through a combination of anti-abuse measures and limitation to tax deductions; asks the European Commission to consider proposing a legislative package aiming at ensuring a minimum effective level of taxation;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 d (new)
Paragraph 16 d (new)
16 d. Takes note that traditional sectors pay in average an effective corporate tax rate of 23% while the digital sector pays about 9,5%1a; asks the European Commission to carry out and release an in depth study on effective level of corporate taxation within the EU and develop a proposal fora coordinated level of minimum taxation within the EU; _________________ 1a COM(2018) 146 final COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEANPARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Time to establish a modern, fair and efficient taxation standard for the digital economy
Amendment 214 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Welcomes the provisions on Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) included in ATAD I to ensure that profits made by related companies parked in low or no-tax countries are effectively taxed; acknowledges that they prevent the absence or diversity of national CFC rules within the Union from distorting the functioning of the internal market beyond situations of wholly artificial arrangements as called for repeatedly by Parliament; deplores the coexistence of two approaches to implement CFC rules in ATAD I and calls on Member States to implement only the simpler and most efficient CFC rules as in ATAD I Article 7(2)(a); asks the European Commission to make a legislative proposal reinforcing CFC rules, including a criteria on an actual corporate tax paid on profits lower than 18%;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Welcomes the general anti-abuse rule for the purposes of calculating corporate tax liability included in ATAD I, allowing Member States to ignore arrangements that are not genuine and having regard to all relevant facts and circumstances aimed at obtaining a tax advantage; reiterates its repeated call for the adoption of a general and common anti- abuse rule, namely in existing legislation and in particular in the parent-subsidiary directive, the merger directive and the interest and royalties directive; calls on Member States to consider a general anti- abuse rule including a minimum effective tax rate of 18%;
Amendment 271 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32 a. Calls on the Council, assisted by the European Commission, to define a comprehensive and exhaustive list of potential harmful tax practices within the EU, to be updated every year; demands that criteria aiming at identifying harmful tax practices include, notably, schemes allowing for a large deduction of corporate income tax without benefiting the real local economy;
Amendment 290 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33 a (new)
Paragraph 33 a (new)
33 a. Recalls that to end the practice of profit shifting and to introduce the principle that tax is paid where profit is generated, the CCTB and CCCTB should be introduced simultaneously in all Member States; calls on the Commission to issue a new proposal based on Article 116 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, whereby the European Parliament and the Council act in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure to issue the necessary legislation, should the Council fail to adopt a unanimous decision on the proposal to establish a CCCTB;
Amendment 334 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 a (new)
Paragraph 36 a (new)
36a. Notes that, across the political spectrum, and across Europe, there is an overwhelming support for a digital tax; recalls that surveys show that 80% of citizens from Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark are supportive of a Digital Service Tax (DST) and that 80% of the citizens think that the EU should not wait for international efforts before it undertakes such a step; underlines furthermore that a majority of the surveyed citizens want a broad scope for a digital service tax, which includes services providing digital content and e-commerce1a; _________________ 1a KiesKompas, Public Perception towards taxing digital companies in six countries https://policies.kieskompas.nl/digital-tax- report.pdf,December 2018
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 b (new)
Paragraph 36 b (new)
36b. Calls on Member States to ensure that the ‘Digital Services Tax’ remains a temporary measure by including a ‘sunset clause’ to the proposal for a Council Directive on the common system of a digital services tax on revenues resulting from the provision of certain digital services and by speeding up the discussion on a Significant Digital Presence1a ; _________________ 1a Proposal for a Council Directive laying down rules relating to the corporate taxation of a significant digital presence COM(2018) 147 final
Amendment 425 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49 a (new)
Paragraph 49 a (new)
49a. Deplores the fact that companies can make agreements with governments to pay almost no tax in a given country despite conducting substantial activity; points in this light to a tax ruling between the Dutch tax revenue authority and Royal Dutch Shell plc that seems to be in violation of Dutch tax law on the sole ground that the head office would be located in the Netherlands after the unification of the two former parent companies, which results in an exemption from Dutch dividend withholding tax, while at the same time recent investigations seem to show that the company pays no profit tax in The Netherlands either; reiterates its call on the Commission to investigate this case of potential illegal state aid;
Amendment 519 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 a (new)
Paragraph 65 a (new)
65a. Welcomes that a VAT Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS) on telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services was introduced in 2015 as a voluntary system for registration, declaration and payment of VAT; welcomes the extension of the MOSS to other supplies of goods and services to final consumers as of 1 January 2021;
Amendment 552 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 74
Paragraph 74
74. WNotes that the Commission has recently proposed additional control tools and an enhanced role for Eurofisc as well as mechanisms for closer cooperation between customs and tax administrations and greater involvement of the European Public Prosecutor's Office; welcomes the adoption of the Protection of Financial Interests (PIF) Directive53 which clarifies the issues of cross-border cooperation and mutual legal assistance between Member States, Eurojust, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the Commission in tackling VAT fraud; _________________ 53 Directive (EU) 2017/1371 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2017 on the fight against fraud to the Union’s financial interests by means of criminal law, OJ L 198, 28.7.2017, p. 29, in particular Articles 3 and 15 thereof.
Amendment 759 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 112 a (new)
Paragraph 112 a (new)
112 a. Notes the positive results of the UK law establishing the Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) in tracking proceeds of criminal activities; highlights that a UWO is a court order that requires a person who is reasonably suspected of involvement in, or of being connected to a person involved in, serious crime to explain the nature and extent of their interest in particular property, and to explain how the property was obtained, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the respondent’s known lawfully obtained income would be insufficient to allow the respondent to obtain the property; calls on the Commission to assess the feasibility of proposing a similar measure through EU legislation and report back to Parliament;
Amendment 762 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 112 b (new)
Paragraph 112 b (new)
112 b. Welcomes the decision in some Member States to ban the issuing of bearer shares and to convert the current ones into nominal securities; reiterates its call on the Commission to propose EU- wide legislation to the same effect;
Amendment 763 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 112 c (new)
Paragraph 112 c (new)
112 c. Stresses the urgent need to create a more efficient system for communication and information exchange among judicial authorities within the EU, replacing the traditional instruments of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, which provide lengthy and burdensome procedures harming investigations of money laundering and other serious crimes; reiterates its call on the Commission to assess the need for legislative action in this field;
Amendment 764 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 112 d (new)
Paragraph 112 d (new)
112 d. Calls on the Commission to assess and report to Parliament about the role and particular risks presented by legal arrangements such as Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) and Non Charitable Purpose Trusts (NCPTs) in money laundering, particularly in the UK, and Crown Dependencies and Overseas territories;
Amendment 806 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 121 a (new)
Paragraph 121 a (new)
121 a. Notes that the recent scandals affecting banks in Malta, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark reveal the failure of supervision by national anti-money laundering authorities; highlights, at the same time, that ESAs have limited abilities to take a more substantial role in the anti-money laundering field due to tight resources coupled with a lack of appropriate powers;
Amendment 808 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 122
Paragraph 122
122. Calls for an assessment of long- term objectives leading to an enhanced AML/CFT framework as mentioned in the ‘Reflection Paper on possible elements of a Roadmap for seamless cooperation between Anti Money Laundering and Prudential Supervisors in the European Union’, such as the establishment at EU level of a mechanism to better coordinate the activities of AML/CFT supervisors of financial sector entities, notably in situations where AML/CFT concerns are likely to have cross-border effects, and a possible centralisation of AML supervision via an existing or new Union body empowered to enforce harmonised rul; calls therefore for a European Anti-money Laundering Authority with adequate supervision, investigation and enforcement powers of both financial and non-financial obliged entities aund practiceser the AMLD;
Amendment 825 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 125 a (new)
Paragraph 125 a (new)
125 a. Notes the concerns expressed by the EBA with regards to the implementation of the Directive 2013/36/EU on access to the activity of credit institutions and the prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms1a; welcomes the suggestions made by the EBA to tackle the deficiencies caused by the current Union legal framework; _________________ 1a https://www.eba.europa.eu/documents/101 80/2101654/Letter+to+Tiina+Astola+on+t he+request+to+investigate+a+possible+B UL+under+Article+17+of+Regulation+% 28EU%29%20No+10932010+- +24092018.pdf
Amendment 863 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 129 b (new)
Paragraph 129 b (new)
129 b. Calls on the Commission to draw up a report assessing the necessity of uniformisation or harmonisation of the organisational status conferred to FIUs in Member States, to ensure better cooperation and exchange of information, without interfering with their independence;
Amendment 870 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 131 a (new)
Paragraph 131 a (new)
131 a. Takes note of the repeated calls from obliged entities, namely financial institutions, for proper channels of enhanced dialogue, communication and exchange of information between private bodies and public authorities, on one hand, and among obliged entities themselves, on the other, to provide less fragmented information to FIUs; calls on the Commission to draw up guidelines in accordance with the AMLD5, for Member States to implement at national level in this regard, namely using the mechanisms provided in the General Data Protection Regulation for secure and lawful exchange of data;
Amendment 881 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 133 a (new)
Paragraph 133 a (new)
133 a. Calls on Member States to ensure that registers of beneficial owners contain verification mechanisms to ensure the accuracy of the data; calls on the Commission to make assessment of verification mechanisms and reliability of the data in its reviews;
Amendment 890 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 136
Paragraph 136
136. Underscores the problem of money laundering through investment in real estate in European cities through foreign shell companies; recalls that the Commission should assess the necessity and proportionality of harmonising the information in the land and real estate registers and assess the need for the interconnection of those registers; takes the view that Member States should have in place publicly accessible information on ultimate beneficial ownership of land and real estate; calls on the Commission, if appropriate, to accompany the report with a legislative proposal;
Amendment 982 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 153
Paragraph 153
153. Welcomes the recent clarifications from the CoC Group on fair taxation criteria, especially regarding the lack of economic substance for jurisdictions having no corporate income tax rate or a rate close to 0 %; calls on the Member States to work towards the gradual improvement of the EU listing criteria to cover all harmful tax practices79 by determining a minimum level of effective taxation and by reviewing all potential harmful practices granting large tax exemptions or deductions which are disconnected from the domestic economy; regrets that the same criteria used to include the jurisdictions of third countries on the European list do not apply internally to Member States and that the EU consequently loses credibility to call on other countries to comply with standards of tax good governance; _________________ 79 Work on fair taxation criteria 2.1 and 2.2 of Council conclusions 14166/16 of 8 November 2016.
Amendment 984 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 153 a (new)
Paragraph 153 a (new)
153 a. Welcomes the new OECD global standard on substantial activities factor to no or only nominal tax jurisdictions1a, largely inspired by the EU work on the EU listing process (Fair criterion 2.2 of the EU list); calls on EU Member States to push for a more ambitious global standard including a minimum level of effective taxation; _________________ 1a OECD, “Resumption of Application of Substantial Activities Factor to No or only Nominal Tax Jurisdictions Inclusive Framework on BEPS: Action 5”, http://www.oecd.org/tax/beps/resumption- of-application-of-substantial-activities- factors.pdf, 2018
Amendment 990 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 154 a (new)
Paragraph 154 a (new)
154 a. Recalls a research study showing that tax avoidance via six EU Member States results in a loss of 42.8 billion in tax revenue in the other 22 Member States1a, which means that the net payment position of these countries can be offset against the losses they inflict on the tax base of other Member States; notes for instance, that the Netherlands impose a net cost on the Union as a whole of 11.2 billion euro, which means the country is in fact not a net contributor but a net recipient; _________________ 1a http://gabriel- zucman.eu/files/TWZ2018.pdf
Amendment 997 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 154 b (new)
Paragraph 154 b (new)
154 b. Welcomes the expected review of the EU list in the first quarter of 2019; asks the Council to release a detailed assessment of commitments from jurisdictions which committed to reform and were listed on Annex II when the first EU list was released on December 5th2017; demands that jurisdictions listed on Annex II thanks to commitments made in 2017 are listed on Annex I if the due reforms have not been implemented by the end of 2018 or the agreed timeline;
Amendment 1000 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 154 c (new)
Paragraph 154 c (new)
154 c. Notes that developing countries might not possess the resources to implement newly agreed international or European tax standards and /or might have more urgent tax gap issues to tackle to ensure they generate sufficient revenues to provide for essential public services; subsequently calls on the Council to exclude counter measures such as cuts in development aid;
Amendment 1001 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 154 d (new)
Paragraph 154 d (new)
154 d. Notes that, according to data of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on foreign direct investment, Luxembourg and the Netherlands combined have more inward investment than the US, the vast majority of which is in special-purpose entities with no substantial economic activity, and Ireland has more inward investment than either Germany or France; points out that, according to its National Statistics Office, foreign investment in Malta amounts to 1 474 %of the size of its economy; notes that, according to research carried out by the University of Amsterdam, 23 % of all corporate investments that ended up in tax havens passed through the Netherlands; believes that these data are a clear indication that some Member States are facilitating excessive profit-shifting activities at the expense of other Member States;
Amendment 1002 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 154 e (new)
Paragraph 154 e (new)
154 e. Recalls that the European Commission has criticised seven member states - Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and The Netherlands, for their "aggressive" tax policies, arguing that they have tax policies that undermine the integrity of the European single market;
Amendment 1004 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 154 f (new)
Paragraph 154 f (new)
154 f. Calls, therefore, on the Commission to regard explicitly at least Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Ireland and Malta as EU tax havens;
Amendment 1005 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 154 g (new)
Paragraph 154 g (new)
154 g. Notes the current negotiations between the EU and Switzerland towards a Framework Agreement; stresses its view that the EU should renegotiate its trade, economic and other relevant bilateral agreements with Switzerland to bring them into line with EU anti-tax fraud policy and anti-money laundering legislation, so as to eliminate serious flaws in the Swiss supervisory system which enable a policy of internal banking secrecy to continue, as well as the creation of offshore structures worldwide, tax fraud and tax evasion not constituting a criminal offence, weak supervision, the inadequate self-regulation of obliged entities, and aggressive prosecution and harassment of whistle-blowers;
Amendment 1041 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 160 a (new)
Paragraph 160 a (new)
160 a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to push for a second set of international tax reform gathering all countries interested on an equal footing and aiming at tackling the growing corporate tax race to the bottom and the allocation of taxing rights;
Amendment 1097 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 170 b (new)
Paragraph 170 b (new)
170 b. Notes that some tax treaties allow the development of potential harmful tax schemes, such as the ‘SingleMalt’ 1awhich directs profits to countries with which Ireland has a double taxation agreement but that do not have any corporation tax; asks the European Commission to investigate such schemes and assess if they constitute an abuse of tax treaties; _________________ 1a Christian Aid, ‘Impossible’ structures: tax outcomes overlooked by the 2015 tax Spillover analysis, Part Two, 2017 https://www.christianaid.ie/sites/default/fil es/2018-02/impossible-structures-tax- report.pdf
Amendment 1115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 172 a (new)
Paragraph 172 a (new)
172 a. Calls on Member States to mandate the Commission to propose a European tax treaty template, containing a clause on significant digital presence, an anti-abuse rule and an anti-tax dumping clause including a minimum level of effective taxation set at 18% of profits;
Amendment 1153 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 178 c (new)
Paragraph 178 c (new)
178 c. Reiterates its call on the Commission to come forward with a legislative proposal on the separation of accounting firms and financial or tax service providers as well as on all advisory services, including a Union incompatibility regime for tax advisers, in order to prevent them from advising both public revenue authorities and taxpayers and to prevent other conflicts of interest;
Amendment 1158 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 179 a (new)
Paragraph 179 a (new)
179 a. Points out that professional secrecy cannot be used for the purposes of protection, the covering up of illegal practices or violating the spirit of the law; urges that the client/attorney privilege principle should not impede adequate STRs or the reporting of other potentially illegal activities without prejudice to the rights guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the general principles of criminal law; calls on the Commission to issue guidance on the interpretation and application of the legal privilege principle for professionals and to introduce a clear demarcation line between traditional judicial advice and lawyers acting as financial operators, in line with case-law of European courts;
Amendment 1174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 181 a (new)
Paragraph 181 a (new)
181 a. Is concerned by the impact of non- disclosure agreements in employment contracts and dismissal agreements, particularly in the financial sector; calls on the Commission to assess the possibility of proposing legislation banning abusive non-disclosure agreements and declared void agreements which limit the employee’s ability and right to report unlawful activity;
Amendment 1228 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 197
Paragraph 197
197. Believes that the mandate of the CoC Group needs to be updated, since it addresses matters beyond the assessment of harmful EU tax practices, which is more than simply providing technical input to the decisions made by the Council; calls, based on the nature of the work undertaken by the Group which is also of a political nature, for such tasks to be brought back under a framework which enables democratic control or supervision, starting by applying transparency; invites Member States to update the mandate of the CoC Group to include a minimum level of effective taxation set at 18% of profits as well as an increased and improved work on harmful tax practices and on the EU listing process;
Amendment 1233 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 199 a (new)
Paragraph 199 a (new)
199 a. Reiterates its call for the creation of an EU Tax Policy Coherence and Coordination Centre (EUTPCCC) within the structure of the Commission1a,which would ensure effective and expeditious cooperation between Member States’ and facilitate early warning in cases like the Cum Ex scandal; urges Member States to support this call and for the Commission to present a legislative proposal for such a mechanism; _________________ 1a European Parliament resolution of 6 July 2016 on tax rulings and other measures similar in nature or effect (2016/2038(INI))
Amendment 1280 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 207
Paragraph 207
207. Takes the view that the work of the TAXE, TAX2, PANA and TAX3 committees should be continued, in the forthcoming parliamentary term, in a permanent structure within Parliament such as a subcommittee to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), including Members from a diverse range of committees; considers that the Commissioner for Taxation, the Chair of the CoC Group and the Finance minister holding the rotating EU presidency should appear at least twice a year before the heretofore mentioned permanent structure;