24 Amendments of Paloma LÓPEZ BERMEJO related to 2014/2144(INI)
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
Α. whereas an, in addition to the estimated EUR 1 trillion of potential tax revenue is lost every year in the EU due to tax fraud and tax avoidance21, the resulting constraints on public investment and the decline in welfare protection levels are merely exacerbating the economic and social crisis in Europe; whereas this loss is a major risk to the efficiency and fairness of the EU tax systems, and facilitates socially detrimental profiteering which leads to growing inequality among EU citizens; __________________ 21 http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxa tion/tax_fraud_evasion/a_huge_problem/i ndex_fr.htm
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Αa. whereas lopsided austerity and drastic budgetary discipline combined with the major losses stemming from tax fraud and tax avoidance are putting even greater strain on the budgets of the Member States and harming the interests of taxpayers and workers in the Union;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas, at a time when the peoples of Europe are bearing the brunt of austerity programmes and neoliberal structural reforms which entail cuts in wages, pensions and welfare benefits, the fact that secret tax agreements, tax avoidance on a global scale and the transfer of profits to tax havens are perfectly legal raises a major issue of social justice;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Ε
Recital Ε
Ε. whereas the reduction of administrative burdens on businesses, particularly for SMEs and microenterprises, and the elimination of tax obstacles in cross- border activities havehas the potential to boost growth;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas by imposing neoliberal structural reforms on Member States (MSs) the European Semester has playsed an essential role in coordinating economic and fiscal policies in the Member States (MSs)obvious role in institutionalising austerity, lowering wages, domestic demand and tax revenues and bringing about a disastrous increase in unemployment and poverty, the result of which has been a severe drop in living standards;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas many MSs have developed, during the last years, many different financial instruments such as "SICAVs" investment funds that are the origin of a big part of the current fall in State income;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F c (new)
Recital F c (new)
Fc. whereas most tax avoidance and tax offences originate in capital income and capital gains;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses that, if the phenomenon of tax fraud and tax avoidance is to be combated effectively at source, it is vital that the mandatory automatic exchange of information should be extended to cover areas other than VAT, excise and customs duties paid over to every MS and the mandatory welfare contributions paid over to every state social security scheme;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Highlights that increased tax policy, tax rate and legislative harmonisation would ensure that Member States’ tax policies support wider EU policy objectives as set out in the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growthcontinue to punish tax avoidance and tax fraud and guarantee tax justice;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Stresses that the European Parliament does not have the legal means to punish tax fraud and tax avoidance, but criticises its failure to use effectively the powers it does have by calling for the setting-up of a committee of inquiry into tax ruling practices with a remit to carry out an in- depth study, make the facts public and draw up specific conclusions which pave the way for the implementation of targeted measures;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls to MSs to support the publicity of the beneficial ownership registers that can be developed in the coming years, specially concerning the central European beneficial ownership register, following the proposal of the European Parliament on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing and the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission to put forward concrete proposals to tackle the VAT gap, taking into account the recent proposals as adopted by the Council, and to evaluate proposals on a definite VAT system by Spring 2015Express its concerns on the lack of action against aggressive tax planning in capital income and gains where most of tax offences and avoidance occurs;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on MSs to agree to a compulsory CCCTB as a comprehensive and long- termpart of the solution to tackle company tax obstacles in the Single Marketavoidance and offences in the EU;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls on the Commission to demonstrate genuine political will by taxing the real holders of wealth and by drawing up a comprehensive strategy incorporating specific, effective legislative measures to monitor international commercial activities, the profits generated by multinationals and intra- group transactions, to ban offshore companies and tax havens in the EU and to introduce a minimum rate of corporation tax in the eurozone;
Amendment 134 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Commission to develop further initiatives to promote good governance in tax matters in third countries, to tackle aggressive tax planning and to address double taxation gaps; that are the source of most of tax avoidance and offences by multinational companies and high-income and high-wealth individuals;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Deplores the fact that, as demonstrated by the recent Luxleaks revelations, tax ruling practices are entirely compatible with EU competition law in that they do not constitute preferential treatment of individual firms; stresses, therefore, that the fight against tax fraud is inextricably bound up with the measures which will have to be taken to address the much broader issue of the current architecture of the Union;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Asks the Commission to develop a binding normative framework in order to transpose all "soft law" in tax legislation into binding rules, to impose effective measures on tax avoidance practices of multinational companies;
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on the Commission to propose, and on MSs to agree on, a common EU position and a set of criteria for the definition of tax havens; recalls the call for appropriate effective measures, including a public European blacklist of tax havens, and countries distorting competition with favourable tax conditions by 31 December 2014;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls for stronger sanctions to prevent companies breaching EU tax standards, by refraining from granting EU funding and access to state aid or to public procurement to fraudulent companies or companies located in tax heavens or countries distorting competition with favourable tax conditions;
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Stresses that, if the measures taken to combat tax fraud and tax avoidance are to be effective, they must not be implemented in isolation, but instead as part of a long- term alternative policy; emphasises that a new, socially just European tax policy is needed which serves to redistribute wealth and generate growth and safeguard the interests of the MSs and workers and taxpayers in the Union;
Amendment 232 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
Amendment 245 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Calls on the MSs to make their tax systems more redistributive, to strike a balance between direct and indirect taxation and to take steps to tax all forms of wealth and put an end to tax havens and tax avoidance;
Amendment 249 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Calls on MSs to shift the tax burden away from labour to other forms of sustainable and indirect taxationDraws attention to the emergence of socially unjust tax systems in many MSs, and calls on MSs to shift the tax burden away from labour and basic necessities to wealth, net profits and high incomes in order to promote growth and jobthe creation of high-quality jobs;
Amendment 264 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23a. Deplores and calls for the discontinuation of the unjust tax policies implemented in the MSs required to undertake economic adjustment programmes, in particular under the supervision of the troïka, policies which entail the retroactive taxation of low incomes and which thus serve to impoverish whole swathes of society, an outcome at odds with the principles of the proportional equality and progressivity of taxation;