Verbatim report of proceedings

Tuesday, 18 May 2021 - Brussels

Business Taxation (continuation of debate)

  Irene Tinagli, on behalf of the S&D Group. – Mr President, we always knew, even before the pandemic, that the international fiscal system is flawed and creates spaces for opportunistic behaviour – elusion, evasion and fraud – that benefit the few at the expense of many others. With thousands of businesses severely hit by the pandemic, we cannot tolerate these distortions any further, and we cannot properly support recovery with a system that allows hundreds of billions of euros in potential tax revenues to be lost because of evasion and fraud.

That’s why we warmly welcome the Commission’s support for a strong global agreement, as well as its commitment to act swiftly on the implementation of such an agreement. In this regard, it is clear to us that all the main elements of the current negotiations need to be maintained, the so-called Pillar 1and Pillar 2. We need to ensure that profits are allocated where the value is created, and at the same time we need to stop a fiscal competition that translates into a deleterious race to the bottom through a minimum effective taxation to multinationals.

There’s another important element that I want to mention in this short timeframe that I have available: the commitment to propose a measure to neutralise the misuse of shell companies. It is a strong clear sign that shows a commitment to fight tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning.

So overall we really welcome this communication. We believe it is an important step to move towards a simpler, fairer and more transparent fiscal system and we look forward to working on that.