About: aggressive tax planning Archives

New European Union rules to force multinational companies to publish their tax bills were criticised on Tuesday (12 April) by campaigners for being too weak to stop tax-dodging corporations hiding their profits.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble on Sunday (10 April) pleaded for countries to work together in the fight against tax cheats and money launderers by sharing national lists naming the beneficiaries of shell companies.

Germany is planning a new national transparency register that will oblige offshore companies to disclose the identity of their owners, Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Monday (4 April).

An updated directive on the automatic exchange of information between national tax administrations received the green light by the EU’s 28 finance ministers on Tuesday (8 March).

The French pork industry has lodged a complaint to the European Commission, accusing German farmers of VAT fraud worth €250 million. EURACTIV France reports.

The European Parliament yesterday (25 November) adopted the TAXE committee's report on the tax practices of big businesses in Europe. But Europe's work on tax evasion is only just beginning. EURACTIV France reports. 

Greek farmers are determined to organize massive demonstrations across the country in order to protest against the “unfair” and “brutal” tax hikes that Alexis Tsipras government is pushing through.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker today (17 September) gave MEPs an occasionally short-tempered defence of his alleged role in the Luxleaks tax scandal.

Four years after failing to formulate common company tax rules across Europe, the EU is set to tackle the low-tax arrangements of states that have benefited the likes of Amazon, Starbucks and Apple.

Apple Inc said that the European Commission's investigation into Ireland's tax treatment of multinationals could have a "material" impact if it was determined that Dublin's tax policies represented unfair state aid.

Like many other public banks, the European Investment Bank (EIB) leverages its own means by acting as a catalyst for private investment through various financial mechanisms. Too often, though, attempts to attract private capital result in unpredictable risks and higher-than projected costs for the public coffer, write Xavier Sol and Fabio De Masi.

The European Commission is investigating a Belgian system allowing companies to reduce their tax bills significantly, it said on Tuesday (3 February), widening its inquiry into tax deals struck with multinationals across the EU.

As the United Nations meet this year to agree their new post-2015 agenda for global development, tax fairness and the fight against illicit financial flows are high on the agenda, write Christian Haldenwang and Armin von Schiller.

Facebook will today publish a report – seen by EURACTIV – claiming that its social network generated €195 billion and enabled 4,540,000 jobs throughout the world last year.

On Thursday evening (18 December), Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel announced that his country plans to withdraw two court challenges against the European Commission and will start handing over past tax rulings. 

EU governments have agreed to create centralised registers of company owners, but stopped short of making them public or applicable to all kinds of trusts, after ambassadors struck a compromise deal with the European Parliament late last night (17 December).

The German, French and Italian finance ministers have urged the European Commission to draw up EU-wide laws to curb corporate tax avoidance and prevent member states from offering lower taxes to attract investors.

The Luxleaks tax scandal has upped pressure on national governments to back an EU-wide public register of company owners and trusts, as part of a revised Anti-Money Laundering Directive, the lead MEP on the bill has said.

The European Commission will use the 'Luxleaks' documents uncovered by investigative journalists three weeks ago in its ongoing investigation of tax avoidance at the European level, Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition chief, said on Thursday (20 November).

The Luxleaks scandal has exposed the methods used by many multinationals to avoid or minimise their tax payments. The time is right for the EU to end corporate secrecy through a public register of beneficial owners of companies, writes Christian Hallum.

Spain negotiated the largest rate reductions in its tax treaties with developing countries, out of 15 EU nations scrutinised for their record on international tax-dodging in the wake of the Luxembourg Leaks scandal.

More than 300 companies, including PepsiCo Inc, AIG Inc and Deutsche Bank AG, secured secret deals from Luxembourg to slash their tax bills, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reported, quoting leaked documents. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg, was asked yesterday (5 November) to comment.

Google, Amazon, and Apple are among the least transparent multinationals in the world, worse than Russian state-owned energy companies Gazprom, and Rosneft, according to a report published today (5 November) by anti-corruption campaigners.

Amazon's tax arrangements with Luxembourg are being investigated by EU regulators, as the online retailer becomes the latest global company to be accused of striking tax-minimising deals with member states that may break the bloc's rules.