Activities of Paul TANG related to 2021/2097(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
European Withholding Tax framewor (debate)
Amendments (29)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1
Citation 1
— having regard to Articles 12, 45, 49, 58, 63, 64, 65, 113, 115 and 116 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 27 a (new)
Citation 27 a (new)
— having regard to the EU Tax Observatory's study "Revenue effects of the global minimum tax: country-by- country estimates"18a _________________ 18aEU Tax Observatory, 2021, "Revenue Effects of the Global Minimum Tax: Country-by-Country Estimates"
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 27 b (new)
Citation 27 b (new)
— having regards to the study ‘New forms of tax competition in the European Union: An empirical investigation’ published by the EU Tax Observatory on November 22 2021,
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas some Member States have very high financial activity, notably passive income, in proportion to the size of the economy, which may be an indication that their legal system is used by multinationals for tax avoidance; whereas high flows of royalty, interest or dividend payments through a certain jurisdiction indicate that profits are being rerouted with the sole purpose of reducing the tax burden;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas the EU Tax Observatory has estimated that the implementation of the G20/OECD agreement's Pillar II will lead to an immediate gain of EUR 63.9 billion in tax revenues for the 27 Member States;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
F a. whereas the European Commission considers that the transposition of Pillar 2 of the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework on BEPS should pave the way for agreeing the pending proposal for recasting the IRD20a _________________ 20a Communication from the Commission to the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council "Business Taxation for the 21st Century"
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
F b. whereas the Commission has pledged to propose a legislative initiative for introducing a common, standardised, EU-wide system for withholding tax relief at source, accompanied by an exchange of information and cooperation mechanism among tax administrations20b; whereas, in addition, the Commission has committed to assess the need for exchange of information and cooperation between tax authorities and financial markets supervisory authorities; _________________ 20bCommission Action Plan for Fair and Simple Taxation supporting the Recovery Strategy
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F c (new)
Recital F c (new)
F c. whereas in its inception impact assessment on “New EU system for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax abuse in the field of withholding taxes”, the Commission outlines three options to ensure the proper functioning of the Capital Markets Union, to facilitate cross-border investment and to prevent tax abuse; whereas option 1 consists of improving withholding tax refund procedures to make them more efficient; whereas Option 2 determines the establishment of a fully-fledged common EU relief at source system; whereas Option 3 focuses on enhancing the existing administrative cooperation framework to verify entitlement to double tax convention benefits;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the cum-ex and cum-cum schemes both involve reclaims of dividend withholding tax to which the beneficiaries were not entitled and are estimated to have imposed a total cost to taxpayers of about EUR 55 billion between 2001 and 2012 in the 11 Member States concerned; whereas new revelations in 2021 concerning these practices estimate that they have cost 10 governments, including those of Germany, Spain, France and the US, a total of €141bn;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Is pleased that 1367 countries and jurisdictions have supported the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework agreement on a two-pillar reform; regrets the fact that one Member State is not part of the Inclusive Frameworkwelcomes the European Commission's intention to put forward a legislative proposal for the implementation of Pillar II until the end of 2021; believes that the issue of putting a floor to tax competition in the area of passive income is part of the implementation of the international deal on minimum effective taxation;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Reminds that withholding taxes can be a defensive measure that Member States take against countries mentioned in the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes; recalls its request for the Commission to put forward a legislative proposal that contemplates coordinated defensive measures against listed countries, given that discretionary application by individual Member States is undermining this toolbox; highlights that the implementation of the G20/OECD agreement, notably Pillar II, must also be taken into account;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Calls on the Commission to give stronger weight to the implementation of recommendations addressing aggressive tax planning given its negative impact on tax revenues of neighbouring countries, particularly other Member States;
Amendment 84 #
6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to set up a harmonised withholding tax framework that ensures that all dividend, interest and royalties payments flowing out the EU are taxed at a minimum effective tax rate; recalls its previous demand on the Commission to present a legislative proposal for an EU- wide withholding tax in order to ensure that profits generated within the Union are taxed at least once before leaving it20c; _________________ 20cEuropean Parliament resolution of 6 July 2016 on tax rulings and other measures similar in nature or effect (TAXE 2), para. 26
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to set up a harmonised withholding tax framework that ensures that all dividend, interest and royalties payments flowing out the EU are taxed at a minimum effective tax rate; urges the Commission to include strong anti-abuse measures that prevents taxpayers to change their residence to third countries to avoid taxation at the border, by for instances including an exit tax on retained dividends as currently proposed in the Dutch parliament;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Recalls the proposal by 10 Member States to include an effective minimum tax rate for royalties and interest in the context of the IRD; urges the Council to swiftly resume and conclude the negotiations on the IRD and encourages the inclusion of such a measurean effective minimum tax rate on payments to third countries in the announced directive for the implementation of Pillar II;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes that the lack of an effective minimum tax rate on dividend payments to non-group shareholders has triggered a race to the bottom in this field; calls for the adoption of an effective minimum tax rate for dividend payments to non-group shareholders in the EU, thereby reducing harmful tax competition in this realm;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Highlights the recent attempts by the Dutch government to scrap the withholding tax on dividend payments in order to appease the Royal Dutch Shell, which is proof not only of said race to the bottom environment, but also of the leverage that multinational corporations currently hold over tax policy of sovereign countries;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Encourages the Commission to review the signature status of the MLI among EU Member States to ensure compliance with global minimum standards; calls upon the Commission to include these MLI standards in the reform of the EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions and its criteria;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8 b. Invites the Commission to assess the development of EU guidelines for the negotiation of tax treaties between an EU Member State and a developing country that would incorporate a minimum withholding tax on passive income at source to prevent base erosion of developing countries;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Recalls that in October 2018, an investigation disclosed that 11 Member States had lost up to EUR 55.2 billion in tax revenue as a result of cum-ex and cum- cum schemes, but that new estimates set the amount of loss of public revenue at much higher numbers, with these schemes continuing to take place;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Welcomes the inquiry and final report by the European Securities and Markets Authority into cum-ex, cum-cum and withholding tax reclaim schemes, as requested by Parliament; calls on the Commission to propose measures to link tax reclaims to the underlying distribution of dividends, or tonotably through a unique identifier, and/or by entrusting a single entity in each Member State with responsibility for collecting the withholding tax and issuing the relevant tax certificate; to ensure that multiple tax reclaims over a single distribution cannot take place and that abuse of reclaim procedures is easily detected by tax administrations;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to propose measures to enhance cooperation and mutual assistance between tax authorities, financial market supervisory authorities and, where appropriate, law enforcement bodies regarding the detection and prosecution of withholding tax reclaim schemes; calls on the Commission, in particular, to propose legislation removing the current legal limitations for exchange of information between financial market supervisory authorities and tax authorities which was obtained through cooperation with other authorities within the EU, and to provide a legal basis for financial market supervisory authorities to exchange relevant information with tax authorities, notably to flag suspicious activities;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Highlights the importance of ensuring that financial market supervisors are mandated to use transaction reporting data and other regulatory information they receive not only to detect market abuse and short selling violations but also to detect financial crime in a broader sense, and WHT reclaim schemes; calls on the Commission to include this mandate in forthcoming reviews of EU legislation on the regulation of financial markets;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recalls that Directive (EU) 2018/822 (DAC 6) introduced mandatory disclosure rules for cross-border arrangements, creating obligation on intermediaries to report potentially harmful tax arrangements; calls on the Commission to evaluate to what extent these rules have contributed to revealing harmful tax arrangements such as cum-cum and cum- ex schemes and to what extent they have had a deterrent effect;
Amendment 134 #
13 a. Notes that labour experiences a higher tax burden than capital; questions the favourable Union treatment of capital over labour, such as the free movement of capital; is concerned that the free movement of capital is misused in situations involving third countries and aggressive tax planning; is of the opinion that misusing this freedom by means of tax avoidance causes damage to the internal market; calls upon the Commission to protect the integrity of the internal market and tax bases of EU Member States against tax avoidance, by putting forward a proposal to the Council to withdraw the free movement of capital to taxpayers residing in jurisdictions that are listed on the EU list of non- cooperative tax jurisdictions as defensive measure;
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15 a. Points out that the Commission estimates costs related to withholding tax refund procedures, foregone tax relief and opportunity costs to be EUR 8.4 billion per year; highlights that such issues can particularly impact pension funds and collective investment funds (CIF), which are often unable to obtain their lawful treaty relief; notes that developing a register listing all pension funds and CIFs entitled to treaty relief could provide a reliable reduction of unwarranted withholding taxes in the short-term;
Amendment 158 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. NReckons that repayments of withholding taxes remain predominantly a paper driven process, which is not only slower and more burdensome for taxpayers, but also more prone to fraud; notes that digitalising these procedures and improving cooperation between national tax administrations could reduce the administrative burden and uncertainty in cross-border investments;
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)