In an April 2007 paper for the Notre Europe think-tank, Le Cacheux presents the case for a European VAT, excise duty, or eco-tax. Among other possibilities, he goes on to examine the viability of a corporate income tax – particularly relevant to the EU single market.
Firstly, Le Cacheux briefly recalls the history of the EU budget, covering a number of important flaws and drawbacks in the decision-making procedures over the medium-term financial framework, which currently defines the path of EU expenditures for seven years. Through a clear and systematic description of the drawbacks of the current funding system, the author outlines his case for an EU tax.
The paper goes on to review the major criteria to be considered when choosing between the various financial instruments. Following this, the paper analyses the different options for an EU tax, and attempts a rough estimation of the potential yield for each of these instruments.
Le Cacheux covers the practical difficulties related to the implementation of a European tax, and remarks that the choice of an EU tax instrument is ultimately a political one, as none of the proposals under debate is unequivocally better than the other.
Regarding the details, according to Le Cacheux, although an eco-tax or corporate income tax complies reasonably well with the majority of the criteria discussed, neither dominates conclusively in all aspects, so a European tax would have to weigh up the pros and cons of both options. He believes a corporate income tax to be the best option on purely economic grounds, and an eco-tax more likely to win broad political support. For him, neither option proves an obvious choice.
He concludes that despite these difficulties, a genuine EU own-resource funding scheme will improve budgetary decisions at the European level, and thus calls for the introduction of an EU tax in the next period of reform of the EU funding system.
