Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-04-18-Speech-3-413-000"
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"en.20120418.22.3-413-000"2
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"Mr President, on behalf of the Danish Presidency, I would like to thank Parliament for the importance it attaches to the subject of the fight against fraud and evasion. The Council shares the view that this issue is a vital part of tax policy and that tax cooperation is a priority for the Presidency. This is even more the case in the context of the current economic climate and the need for all the Member States to ensure ambitious, fiscal consolidation.
Dear colleagues, we will be working closely with you and the Commission to ensure that this will be a successful battle against tax fraud and evasion.
The Council has undertaken a variety of initiatives to address this problem in recent years. In 2006 and 2007, the Council adopted conclusions aimed at establishing an anti-fraud strategy at Community level, in particular, in the area of VAT fraud. Since then, the Council has adopted a number of acts such as the strengthening of the regulation on administrative cooperation between Member States in the field of VAT as well as a number of modifications to the VAT Directive which are aimed at tackling fraud. This includes the speeding up of information exchange between Member States, the establishment of conditions for VAT exemptions on imports and agreements on invoicing rules.
In the area of direct taxation, as recently as February 2011, the Council adopted the directive on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation, which is aimed at strengthening the instruments of mutual assistance in the assessment of direct taxes between Member States. The directive provides, among other things, for increased possibilities for exchanging information and requests and introduces provisions on the automatic exchange of information.
Furthermore, in 2003, the Council adopted the directive on the taxation of saving income in the form of interest payments. Finally, in March 2010, the Council adopted the directive concerning mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to taxes, duties and other measures, which is a major upgrade of the existing mutual assistance instruments to collect taxes.
I believe that these various initiatives demonstrate the Council’s commitment to tackling tax fraud and evasion. That said, it is clear that more can and should be done. At its last meeting in March, the European Council underlined the importance of fiscal consolidation and growth. In that context, it called on the Council and the Commission to rapidly develop concrete ways to improve the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion and to report back in June this year.
The Danish Presidency attaches great importance to this issue. The work is currently under way, and we fully expect to respect the deadline and report back to the European Council in June. Obviously, at this stage I cannot provide you with full details of what we expect to have in that report, but I can give you an idea of the work which is ongoing in Council.
Firstly, the Danish Presidency is pressing ahead with the Savings Taxation Directive. This file is due to be discussed by Ecofin Ministers in May or June, hopefully on 15 May. At that meeting, the Danish Presidency will propose that a mandate be adopted to allow the Commission to open negotiations with Switzerland and other non-EU Western European countries on a new generation of savings taxation agreements. The savings agreements with third countries can then be revised in parallel with the proposed amendments to the EU Savings Directive. The overall objective is to ensure more effective taxation of cross-border savings, and the Danish Presidency hopes that we will be able to make real progress on this difficult file, a file which is important for combating tax fraud and tax evasion.
Secondly, on the issue of excess duties, the new Administrative Collaboration Directive is due to be adopted at the next Ecofin Council meeting. This constitutes a major upgrade of the tools available to Member States to fight fraud and evasion in the area. Thirdly, as regards VAT, the Council will take a close look at the Commission’s communication on the future of VAT, which proposes new ways for dealing with VAT fraud. Detailed Council conclusions on this issue are expected by the end of the Danish Presidency.
In addition to initiatives in the legislative field, the Council is continuing work on the coordination of tax policies. The Council’s Code of Conduct group, which coordinates the efforts of Member States in the fight against harmful tax competition in the area of business taxation, is embarking on a new line of work aimed at promoting the principles of the code to third countries."@en1
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