Limits on cash payments
10.7.2014
Question for written answer E-005718-14
to the Commission
Rule 130
Marianne Thyssen (PPE)
Existing European legislation quite rightly allows Member States to restrict cash payments on grounds of public interest (Recital 19, Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98) provided that they do so in a proportionate manner. Some Member States have instituted statutory limits on cash payments, often with the justified aim of preventing tax evasion and tax fraud.
However, the levels at which such limits are set, and the detailed provisions that apply to them, vary widely from one Member State to another. Various occupational groups have drawn my attention to the fact that this has the undesirable consequence that customers choose to make their purchases in those Member States where limits are either less strict or non-existent.
Does the Commission agree that these differences in legislation between Member States create an uneven playing field for traders and that European harmonisation of the limits on cash payments would therefore be justified? Does the Commission have any plans to do anything about this distortion of competition?