Minimum effective taxation of companies

Key points:

The EESC

• welcomes the fact that the Commission is working fully in line with international discussions and agreements and strongly supports the Commission's objectives;

• agrees with the Commission that "the effectiveness and fairness of the global minimum tax reform heavily relies on its worldwide implementation". The Committee considers it very important that the negotiations are successful and concluded in a timely manner. Common global implementation without gold-plating is essential to make the rules effective and not to distort competition;

• strongly agrees with the Commission that it is "imperative to ensure uniform implementation of the OECD Model Rules in the EU" and that "this can only be achieved if legislation is enacted centrally and transposed in a uniform fashion";

• backs any effort aimed at reducing compliance costs for European companies and tax authorities when devising the new system. The full implementation of Pillar 2 will be complex and is going to require a long time and significant effort, both by companies and tax authorities;

• considers that specific tax provisions enacted by parliaments in Member States as deliberate incentives for investments and employment efforts should not be neutralised by the Model Rules. It is important to promote the achievement of a greener and digitalised economy, and taxes should play a role in this;

• calls for the directive to include a provision making it possible to apply the directive on dispute resolution, at least between Member States, for disputes regarding Pillar 2;

• agrees with imposing penalties for non-compliance and calls on Member States to perform thorough tax inspections to ensure full compliance with the Directive's provisions;

• calls for the revision of the EU list of non-cooperative third countries in relation to the tax package.