Urgent need for a Double Taxation Dispute Resolution Mechanism in the EU

European Parliament Rapporteur Dr Theurer (ALDE) and ESSC rapporteur Krister Andersson agreed that double taxation is one of the biggest tax obstacles to the Single Market, and that a remedy was urgently needed.

On 27 February 2017, the rapporteurs met at the European Parliament (EP). Dr Theurer came directly from a meeting with representatives from DG TAXUD, European Commission. He has been active on earlier tax dossiers in the EP and he mentioned that he would have liked to see the setup of a specialised parliamentary committee in the EP dealing only with tax issues. Dr Theurer was very much in favour of a more comprehensive double taxation dispute resolution mechanism in the EU, since the existing framework is too limited and non-committal to Member States. Dr Theurer mentioned that the EP report would support the views expressed in the EESC opinion. He said, however, that he was not sure if his draft report would be able to count on such strong support of MEPs in the actual voting as was accomplished in the EESC. Dr Theurer wanted to reduce the time a taxpayer would have to wait for arbitration to start, but other than that he supported the Commission proposal. The rapporteurs also discussed other tax issues, such as the border adjusted corporate cash-flow tax being considered in the US. Dr Theurer asked for Mr Andersson's opinion and for suitable responses from Europe. The meeting ended with mutual agreement on the need for much more extensive cooperation in the future.