CFE’s Tax Top 5 – 15 FEBRUARY 2021

BRUSSELS | 15 FEBRUARY 2021

CFE Tax Advisers Europe Annual Report

CFE Tax Advisers Europe, in cooperation with IBFD, has published its Annual Report, which can be viewed on the CFE website. The report details CFE’s technical and policy work, relevant events and publications as well an overview of our activities aimed at Member organisations and other external and internal stakeholders.

In a contribution for CFE’s Report, Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, said: “As we look to the future of international tax, we can see emerging areas such as tax and environment moving to the fore. At present, 70% of energy-related CO2 emissions from advanced and emerging economies are entirely untaxed and some of the most polluting fuels remain among the least taxed. Our work, in particular through our flagship publications, Taxing Energy Use and Effective Carbon Rates, show that tax policy tools, such as carbon pricing, have the capacity to improve environmental outcomes while also raising much needed government revenues to drive a green recovery. The OECD will continue to produce such timely materials moving forward.”, Mr Saint-Amans said.

EU Commission Launches Consultation on State Aid Enforcement

The European Commission has launched a public consultation concerning enforcement of the State aid rules by Member states and national courts. The Commission initiated State Aid Modernisation programme, which allowed EU Member States to grant State aid in more cases where no prior authorisation by the Commission is required. The public consultation builds on a study that has identified lack of awarded remedies to parties by national courts.

The Draft Notice on enforcement of State aid rules provides details procedural aspects of the EU State aid regime, with specific focus on guidance to national courts when they apply these rules and encourages closer cooperation with the European Commission.

Input can be submitted until 14 April 2021 to the Directorate-General for Competition – Unit H4 – State aid enforcement and monitoring (reference HT.5303 – Review of Enforcement Notice) at COMP-H4-PUBLIC-CONSULTATION@ec.europa.eu.

Council to Discuss Financial Transactions Tax

The Working Party on Taxation (Indirect Tax) of the Council of the European Union will discuss on 24 February the proposal for a Council Directive implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of financial transaction tax (FTT). The Portuguese Presidency of the EU will progress this file which has been stalled at EU level for quite some time.

A Franco-German attempt to reconcile the positions of Member states participating in the FTT enhanced cooperation procedure back in 2019 (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain) resulted in a draft-compromise model, whereby generated revenue should be distributed by way of a compensation mechanism among the participating Member states, on a rate set at no less than 0.2% of the value of the transaction. If adopted under EU law, the FTT shall be applicable only to the Member states participating in the enhanced cooperation mechanism, after a unanimous Council decision of the participating countries and in consultation with the European Parliament.

The Council Ministers will meet as ECOFIN on 16 February to discuss the economic outlook for the EU, with focus on the tax policy side on the EU’s list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.

EU Commission Publishes Digital Targets Roadmap

The EU Commission has published a Roadmap concerning a planned Communication on Europe’s digital decade: 2030 digital targets. The Communication will identify the coherence of the EU’s digital goals, aiming to foster digital leadership by stepping up work on improving digital skills and competences of citizens, digitalisation of all businesses and digital transformation of public administrations and public institutions.

The Roadmap sets out that digital technologies are critical to recover from the COVID-19 crisis, to ensure that everybody can benefit from digital opportunities, to foster EU’s resilience and address the risks and dependencies on third countries, as well as to influence EU’s positioning on the global stage. Input can be submitted on the Roadmap document until 9 March 2021 via the Have Your Say portal.

Save the Date: CFE European Register Webinar on the Tax Implications of Brexit – 25 February 2021

Save the date for the first 2021 edition of the CFE European Register Webinar Series, to be held virtually on Thursday, 25 February 2021 from 2:30pm to 3:30pm CET, on the topic of the “Tax Implications of Brexit”.

The selection of the remitted material has been prepared by:
Piergiorgio Valente/ Aleksandar Ivanovski/ Brodie McIntosh/ Filipa Correia