Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-06-07-Speech-2-031-000"
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"en.20160607.2.2-031-000"2
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"Madam President, the Committee’s amendments urge the EU to introduce a common consolidated corporate tax base. This is clearly intended as a move towards a harmonised corporate tax rate. In a free market context, competition is always a good thing, and tax competition between jurisdictions is always, and everywhere, a good thing. Any attempt by governments to harmonise taxes is a conspiracy by those governments against the interests of taxpayers. The effect of such tax harmonisation is always to increase taxes, to reduce competitiveness – in this case of European economies – and, ultimately, it is the individual consumer who pays more because these costs are simply passed on.
Countries with high-tax economies, like socialist France, cannot compete with countries which have lower corporate tax rates, such as Ireland. The EU’s solution is to destroy globally competitive business environments because it envies them. If countries like Britain want to have a globally competitive environment in which to create business, jobs and wealth, then we must leave an EU which is intent on harmonising taxes. Not only that, but in the EU the state is to be given more weapons with which to intimidate ordinary taxpayers.
General rules against tax avoidance, as proposed today by the Commission, will be difficult to interpret and will consequently give the state a large stick with which to threaten the ordinary taxpayer. These rules will not be used against large corporates, as is claimed, they will be used by the state against those who cannot afford expensive lawyers. It would be better to simplify the tax system so that the taxpayer could be certain of his or her tax liability, rather than add a layer of complexity with anti—avoidance rules which will scare ordinary people away from making sensible investments for the future and into paying more tax than they need to do today.
We are also being asked to endorse the Committee’s proposal for an EU tax identification number. Clearly, the EU is too scared of British public opinion to tell us before our EU referendum, but we can put the pieces of the jigsaw together. The EU wants to tax us directly if we are daft enough to remain. The report recommends an EU-wide withholding tax and an EU exit tax, added to which are proposals in committee for a global register of assets held by individuals. Put these things together and you have the necessary building blocks for a wealth tax on citizens. The prospect of a financial transaction tax is also being discussed in working documents aimed at creating a eurozone budget. Not content with just its own budget, the eurozone wants to use the EU’s general budget as a means to keep the euro on life support. We know this actually from David Cameron’s so—called renegotiation, which attempts to protect the British economy from these costs but will fail to do so.
May I end on a positive note? We in Britain are about to vote – if the polls are to be believed – to leave the European Union so we shall not be troubled by these problems. We we will happily leave you to cope with the problems of your own creation."@en1
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