S&Ds: Tax justice cannot wait for another scandal: citizens cannot accept secrets anymore
Date
27 Mar 2019
Sections
Euro & Finance
The S&D Group pushed the European Parliament for voting today in favour of the disclosure of income tax information by certain undertakings and branches. Member states are still blocking to move towards a fair and transparent solution for taxpayers in Europe with the so-called country-by-country-reporting (CBCR).
Hugues Bayet, S&D negotiator for the economic and monetary affairs committee, said:
“Citizens, our civil society and all taxpayers have the right to know whether multinationals are paying their fair share of taxes or not, and where they are shifting the profits they make in our single market to, and whether they are an EU or a third country multinational. The Parliament has called for the largest companies to release essential information which should deter tax evasion and profit shifting, while being useful to investors and creating a level playing field between big companies and SMEs.”
Evelyn Regner, S&D negotiator for the legal affairs committee, stated:
“Scandals such as Luxleaks have shown that some member states might have reasons against a transparent and just tax system. Our citizens demand more and pressing action on tax justice at an EU level. Still, we witness EU ministers blocking tax transparency of the biggest multinationals. This is not tolerable! I am pleased to see that the European Parliament, once again, confirmed today with a huge majority its progressive position on tax transparency: we need it now. Let's take multinationals and governments into account and start making politics for the people.
“For 3 years now, EU ministers are refusing to make progress on this essential transparency measure and we wonder, whose interests are they protecting: the interests of their citizens, or the interests of the largest companies on earth?”