UK and International Tax news

EC Confirms Further Measures Combating Tax Avoidance

Tuesday 30th December 2014

The EC has recently confirmed two agreements reached by the Council towards combating corporate tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning. The Council has given its political backing to the anti-abuse clause of the Parent Subsidiary Directive and to the mandatory exchange of information between EU tax authorities.

As a follow up to the Action Plan against tax evasion and tax fraud of 6 December 2012, the Commission proposed to amend the Parent Subsidiary Directive on 25 November 2013 to introduce a mandatory anti-abuse provision. The new ‘de minimis’ anti-abuse clause will allow Member States to put in place stricter or more specific domestic provisions or double tax treaty anti-abuse provisions.

An earlier amendment in July 2014 (Directive 2014/86) already addressed loopholes related to hybrid loans.

EU Finance Ministers also took a final political decision on the automatic exchange of information between the tax authorities of the EU’s 28 Member States. The Commission had proposed a revision to the Administrative Cooperation Directive in June 2013 as part of its drive to further increase tax transparency in Europe. The revision is also a direct response to the new Global Standard on automatic exchange of information agreed by G20 Finance Ministers in February 2013, which aims to ensure full tax transparency and cooperation between tax administrations worldwide in fighting tax evasion.

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