Combat tax fraud, tax avoidance and money laundering

Key points:

The EESC

• proposes launching a European pact to effectively combat tax fraud, evasion and avoidance and money laundering;
• urges the European institutions and the Member States to provide the financial and human resources required for the effective implementation of existing European legislation;
• finds that eradicating criminal activity by tax havens should be a priority for the EU;
• supports the new Anti-Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing action plan, that should be implemented as a matter of urgency;
• backs the proposed measures like the establishment of a single EU legal code and the creation of a European supervisory body with direct responsibility for monitoring and investigating;
• wants the EU and Member States to maintain common positions in international forums such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF, housed at the OECD), G20 and the UN;
• demands that the measures taken take account of European data protection legislation and ECJ case law on the matter and ensure that they entail the smallest possible administrative and financial burden for the Member States and the obliged entities;
• calls on the European Commission to assess the current list of non-cooperative jurisdictions and to consider the possibility of establishing additional criteria;
• welcomes the introduction of tax indicators into the European Semester;
• calls for the progressive abolition of the schemes set up in certain Member States for citizenship or residence in exchange for investment;
• supports a global solution on the corporate taxation of companies with a significant digital presence under the aegis of the OECD's work, but if a solution is not reached by the end of 2020, the EU should resume its initiative for taxing large digitalised companies;
• finds that the Anti Tax Avoidance Directive should be revised to include rules on tax treatment in relation to low-tax jurisdictions and on the repatriation of dividends or capital gains that have not been taxed abroad;
• calls on the Commission to carry out a study on the role of "letterbox companies" in tax fraud, evasion and avoidance as well as money laundering and react to findings with appropriate legislation;
• calls on the Commission and the Member States to explore the concept of minimum effective taxation of corporate profits, and its possible application;
• proposes that EU trade or economic agreements include, in keeping with WTO principles and rules, a chapter containing clauses against tax offences, money laundering and aggressive tax planning and for cooperation between tax authorities.