BRUSSELS, 27 JANUARY 2016. Today the European Commission officially launched the Anti-Tax Avoidance Package. The document aims at implementing an External Strategy for Effective Taxation, to tackle corporate tax avoidance and ensure fair tax competition.

With this Package, the Commission hopes to address public opinion’s support for a more transparent and fair taxation system, fuelled by recent scandals on corporate tax avoidance.

Tamira Gunzburg, Director of ONE Brussels, said:

“Today’s Anti-Tax Avoidance package tries to integrate OECD rules into European law, but this is not enough. The Commission should, as soon as possible, require that all European multinational companies publicly report their taxes for every country in which they operate.”

 

“The key word here is public. Public access to this information would allow tax authorities and citizens in developing countries to follow the money and ensure that the revenues are spent responsibly. This could unleash unprecedented domestic funds for governments in developing countries, which currently lose at least $1 trillion every year through illicit financial flows including tax evasion.“

 

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Notes to editors:

• Contact, information &interviews – Andrea Ghianda // [email protected] // +32 (0)2 300 89 42 // +32 (0)471 89 64 22
• The European Commission conducted a public consultation on the subject – 65% of the responses supported public disclosure – and is expected to come up with an impact assessment and legislative proposal in early 2016.
• The European Parliament has been consistently leading the call for public disclosure of large multinationals’ financial information on a country-by-country basis. It did so in its tax avoidance and tax evasion in developing countries report, in its position on the revision of the Shareholders Rights Directive and, most recently, in its tax rulings report.
• ABOUT ONE: ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organisation of nearly 7 million people taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Not politically partisan, we raise public awareness and press political leaders to combat AIDS and preventable diseases, increase investments in agriculture and nutrition, and demand greater transparency in poverty-fighting programmes. Read more at one.org.