THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION will today put forward new rules aimed at increasing tax transparency and stopping large multinational companies from avoiding tax.
The proposals would oblige large multinationals to publicly disclose all their taxes and earnings in the European Union.
Any company, either based in Europe or with subsidiaries based in Europe, with an annual turnover of over €750 million will be required to publish a report on all of their income tax information and earnings.
The directive the commission is planning to introduce (which can be viewed here) states that this information will need to be easily publicly accessible:
“The report on income tax information shall be made easily accessible to the public on the website of the undertaking on the date of its publication,” it says.
The new proposals come in the wake of last week’s release of the so-called Panama Papers – documents which show the use of offshore shell companies by businesses and individuals in order to avoid tax.
They form part of a wider effort by the EU to clamp down on tax avoidance by big multinational companies and to increase transparency and accountability in terms of how much money these companies make.
A recent study commissioned by the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) estimated that “aggressive corporate tax planning” leads to loss of tax revenue to the EU of around €50 to €70 billion a year.
The new proposals will be announced this afternoon in Brussels by EU Financial Commissioner Jonathan Hill.
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