Activities of Beatrix von STORCH related to 2015/2058(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Tax avoidance and tax evasion as challenges in developing countries (A8-0184/2015 - Elly Schlein) DE
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on tax evasion and tax fraud: challenges for governance, social protection and development in developing countries
Amendments (23)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. ReiteratAcknowledges that for low-income countries, the pressing necessity, for developing countries, of taxing profitsax revenue as a share of GDP might be a useful measure of how much revenue governments are able to extract from the economy, but that, however, this ratio does not reflect where theyr are made government should extract more taxes from the economy;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses the importance of the free movement of capital, which is endangered by certain features of tax systems;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Recalls that secure property rights, a corruption-free economy, and fiscal freedom bring about prosperity;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Regrets that most low-income countries continually rank among those nations, which have the most economically repressed societies;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1d. Reminds low-income countries, which often already have some of the world's riskiest business environments, that a discussion about higher taxes may generate an even more hostile economic environment for investors and entrepreneurs, which in turn might endanger future growth prospects;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 e (new)
Paragraph 1 e (new)
1e. Reminds low-income countries that while a low tax rate can easily be legislated overnight, establishing secure property rights and a corruption-free bureaucracy takes generations to accomplish;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 f (new)
Paragraph 1 f (new)
1f. Reminds low-income countries to tax profits very cautiously in order to not endanger growth;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 g (new)
Paragraph 1 g (new)
1g. Reminds low-income countries that lower taxes and extracting less tax from society is not so much about attracting foreign direct investment, but empowering local businesses to grow and prosper;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 h (new)
Paragraph 1 h (new)
1h. Reminds low-income countries that a lower tax burden compensate domestic and international investors and entrepreneurs for the lack of infrastructure and regulatory shortcomings;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Recalls that a higher tax volume is a result of an economically more developed economy, not the other way around, and that Western nations became prosperous when their government was very small;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for the establishment of a globally accepted definition of tax havens, of penalties for operators making use of them and of a blacklist of countries that do not combat tax evasion or accept it, as has already been called for previouslyWelcomes tax competition as a valuable tool for low-income countries to accelerate their economic development with the side effect of limiting the tax- burden in more developed countries to the benefit of the taxpayers in both developed and countries and low-income countries;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls onStresses that the Commission to set up an programme to assist developing countries in combating tax fraud which should include in particular human resources training and the development of administrative structureshas a very limited competence in general tax matters which needs to be taken into account in any effort to assist low-income countries in combating tax fraud;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Stresses that, according to the IMF, less complicated tax systems have the advantage of being more easily administered and can help save expenses for human resources training and the development of appropriate administrative structures;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Reminds low-income countries that they compete for the employing of expert tax professionals with multinational auditing firms, which are able to outcompete governments for the services of such professionals even in developed countries;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Stresses that complicated tax systems regularly benefit multinational corporations, who can afford competent tax advisors, but are detrimental to local SMEs and family businesses;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on EU bodies such as, for instance, the EIB and the EBRD not to cooperate any longer through their financial intermediaries with non-cooperative tax jurisdictions systematically used for tax fraud;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recalls the pledge by EU countries to allocate as quickly as possible 0.7 % of their GDP to official development assistance bearing in mind the pressure on national budgets due to the financial crises and the investment gap of the European economy, which the Commission has diagnosed;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. CRecalls on the OSCE and the G20 to abide by their pledges and adopt the latest BEPS measures in 2015; that automatic exchange of (tax) information is not self-evidently beneficial, since governments have to acknowledge the sensitivity of tax records and its proper treatment, which could mean that under certain circumstances information must not be shared, when the confidentiality of information is endangered;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the OECD's "Tax Inspectors Without FrontiBorders" initiative and calls on the Commission to undertake a similar project;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Stresses the urgent need for a study on the impact of international tax treat the power to negotiate tax treaties rests with the Member Staties;
Amendment 75 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls for a code of conduct to be eststudy to evaluate the viabilished for governments of the countries concerned in order to ensure tax systems are managed efficientlyty of a code of conduct for governments on how to administer efficient tax systems;
Amendment 88 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. CRecalls for the recommendations of the CbC reports to be implemented in all sectors and in all countriesthat corporations may already implement CbCR on a voluntary basis, in order to inform their shareholders as they see fit.