About: aggressive tax planning Archives

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.

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.

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).

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.

The OECD wants to force businesses to declare their turnover and number of employees in each country where they are active. Among the multinationals targeted are digital giants Google, Apple and Amazon.

The European Commission will not sack PwC from a study on making bank data public, despite allegations from campaigners and politicians the "Big Four" auditor has conflicts of interest.

The European Commission is widening its probe into how multinationals use countries such as Luxembourg to cut their tax bill, an official with knowledge of the matter said on Friday (4 July).

Development aid organisations today (2 July) called on the European Commission to oust auditors PwC from an impact study on country reporting for EU banks, saying the company has lobbied against the legislation and therefore has a conflict of interest.

EU finance ministers meeting today (20 June) have closed loophole exploited by multinationals to pay little or no tax worth billions of euros, after Malta dropped its objections to a compromise deal on hybrid loan arrangements.

The European Commission has told Ireland it may investigate more companies as part of a probe into the country's tax practices, after announcing a formal probe into Apple's Irish subsidiaries, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday (20 June).

Malta is the only member state stopping a tax loophole costing billions of euros being closed, after Sweden dropped its opposition to a EU finance ministers' agreement to stop multinational companies exploiting hybrid loan arrangements to pay little or no tax. 

There should no specific tax regime for online companies, experts Wednesday (28 May) told the European Commission, dealing a blow to supporters of an EU-wide “Google Tax,” targeted at the digital sector.

Sweden came under fire Wednesday (7 May) for blocking a political agreement among EU finance ministers that would allow the closing of a loophole costing European taxpayers millions of euros.

The United Kingdom and Sweden attacked the bloc of EU nations pressing ahead with a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) after the group announced plans for the levy at Tuesday’s (6 May) meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels.