Activities of Hugues BAYET related to 2015/2058(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Tax avoidance and tax evasion as challenges in developing countries (A8-0184/2015 - Elly Schlein) FR
UN International conference on financing for development (13-16 July 2015) - Tax avoidance and tax evasion as challenges in developing countries (debate) FR
Amendments (35)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas illicit financial flows (IFFs), i.e. all unrecorded private financial outflows involving capital that is illegally earned, transferred or utilised, typically originate from tax evasion activities, trade misinvoicing and abusive transfer pricing, against the principle that taxes should be paid where profits have been generated, and tax evasion and avoidance have been identified as major obstacles to the mobilisation of domestic revenue for development by all major international texts and conferences on financing for development;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls for the introduction of a mandatory consolidated common tax base for corporation tax in order to standardise tax returns; Calls for a minimum corporate tax rate;
Amendment 27 #
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 a blacklist to be drawn up of such tax havens and countries distorting competition with favourable tax conditions, including those in the EU, by end of 2015; the definition of tax havens should include but should not be limited to the following: "Provision for tax measures which entail no or nominal taxes, a lack of effective exchange of information with foreign tax authorities and a lack of transparency in legislative, legal or administrative provisions, or where advantages are granted even without any real economic activit,y as has already been called for previouslynd substantial economic presence within country offering such tax advantages";
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas the need for an increase of domestic revenues has become more pressing due to the financial and economic crisis;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas the amount of resources raised by developing countries through domestic revenue mobilisation has been increasing steadily, and important progress has been done in this field with the aid of international donors;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas developing countries still rely heavily on taxes from trade, which exposes national budgets to volatile commodity price, and are having difficulties in compensating for the decline in trade taxes resulting from the current global context of trade liberalisation, and in shifting to other types of domestic resources;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. whereas corporate tax revenues constitute a significant share of developing countries' national income, and in the past years developing countries have continually lowered corporate tax rates;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on EU bodies such as, for instance, the EIB and the EBRD not tonot to cooperate with those jurisdictions or companies that have been deemed to be uncooperative on tax matters, for instance by ensuring that institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) do not cooperate any longer through their financial intermediaries with non- cooperative tax jurisdictions and by committing not to grant EU funding to companies that breach EU tax standards;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas, comparatively speaking, developing countries raise substantially less revenue than advanced economies (with-a-tax to GDP ratio ranging between 10 to 20%, as opposed to 30 to 40% of OECD economies) and are characterised by extremely narrow tax bases, and there is considerable potential for increasing the tax-to-GDP ratio, especially in the least industrialised countries (LICs);
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas developing countries have been offering various tax incentives and exemptions, which are not transparent and guided by proper cost-benefit analyses and often fail to attract real and sustainable investments, putting developing economies against each other, competing to offer the most favourable tax treatments, and leading to harmful tax competition and a ‘race to the bottom’ that brings greater benefit to multinational corporations (MNCs) than to developing countries;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions that allow banking or financial information to be kept private, combined with 'zero-tax' regimes to attract capital and revenues that should have been taxed in other countries generate harmful tax competition and particularly affect developing countries, with a loss of an estimated $189 billion of tax revenue annually;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the OSCE and the G20 to abide by their pledges and adopt the latest BEPS measures in 2015Asks the Commission to fully cooperate with the OECD, the G20 and developing countries to address BEPS and to report regularly to Parliament and the Council on the progress made; welcomes the upcoming revised Commission Action Plan in 2015 on tax evasion and tax avoidance and calls on the Commission to come forward with an EU anti-BEPS Directive;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H b (new)
Recital H b (new)
Hb. whereas the fiscal treatment of mining investments varies across countries, and arrangements between developing countries' governments and extracting companies are usually ad hoc and negotiated without transparency and clear guidelines, with the risk of hampering tax collection;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H c (new)
Recital H c (new)
Hc. whereas the existence of large informal sectors in developing countries' economies makes broad-based taxation next to impossible, and in countries where a large proportion of the population lives in poverty a considerable share of GDP is not taxable;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls for a review of existing double taxation agreements in order to allow for a 'fair share' of the tax base to be taxed in developing countries;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Furthermore, calls on the Commission to propose changes to EU company law to effectively ban shell companies and similar entities by introducing for example substance requirements, limitation of multiple directorships etc.
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas the amount of aid in support of domestic resource mobilisation is still low, accounting for less than one percent of total ODA in 2011;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I b (new)
Recital I b (new)
Amendment 70 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Stresses the urgent need for a study on the impact of international tax treaties, and a 'spillover analysis' of the impacts of Member States' corporate tax regimes and their bilateral tax treaties with developing countries, based on the principles and methodology of studies previously carried out by the International Monetary Fund;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
Ja. whereas the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters is a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council which pays special attention to developing countries and countries with economies in transition;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas the European Investment Bank supports private companies in developing countries directly by providing loans, or indirectly by supporting financial intermediaries such as commercial banks and private equity funds, which then on-lend or invest in enterprises;
Amendment 78 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls for a code of conduct to be established for governments of the countries concerned in order to ensure tax systems are managed efficiently, stemming from a review of the work of the existing Code of Conduct on Business Taxation Group;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Insists that effective mobilisation of domestic resources and a strengthening of tax systems will be an indispensable factor in achieving the post-2015 framework that will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which represents a viable strategy to overcome foreign aid dependency in the long term, and that efficient and fair tax systems are crucial for poverty reduction, fighting inequalities, good governance and state- building;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that tax avoidance and tax evasion represent a considerable financial loss for developing countries, and that taking appropriate measures at national, European and international level against these practices should be a top priority for the EU, taking into account the needs and constraints that developing countries face in gaining access to their tax revenues; considers that the EU should be taking a leading role in driving international efforts to combat tax havens, tax fraud and evasion, leading by example; and that it should cooperate with developing countries in counteracting aggressive tax avoidance practices by certain transnational companies, as well as in seeking ways to help them withstand pressures to engage in tax competition;
Amendment 91 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the EU and the Member States to enforce the recommendations of theprinciple that multinational companies must adopt country-by-country reporting as standard, requiring them to publish as part of their annual report on a country-by-country basis for each territory in which they operate the names of all subsidiaries, their financial performance, relevant tax information, assets and number of employees, and to ensure that this information is publicly available; Calls for CbC reportsing to be implemented for multinational companies in all sectors and in all countries.;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Urges the Commission to support developing countries and regional tax administration frameworks, such as the African Tax Administration Forum and the Inter-American Centre of Tax Administrations, in the fight against tax dodging, in developing fairer tax policies, in promoting administrative reforms and in order to increase the share, in terms of aid and development, of financial and technical assistance to the national tax administrations of developing countries;
Amendment 94 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Calls for the establishment of an intergovernmental tax body under the auspices of the United Nations with the aim of ensuring that developing countries can participate on an equal footing in the formulation and reform of global tax policies;
Amendment 95 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Calls for a swift implementation of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) and the Transfer of Funds Regulation (ToFR); considers, however, that room for improvement remains and urges MSs to use the available flexibility, provided for in particular in the AMLD, towards the use of unrestricted public registers with access to beneficial ownership information for companies, trusts, foundations and other legal entities;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Asks the Commission to give good governance in tax matters and fair tax collection a high place on the agenda in its policy dialogue (political, development and trade) and in all development cooperation agreements with partner countries, enhancing ownership and domestic accountability by fostering an environment where national parliaments are enabled to meaningfully contribute to the formulation and oversight of national budgets, including on domestic revenues and tax matters, and supporting the role of civil society in ensuring public scrutiny of tax governance and monitoring of cases of tax fraud, inter alia by setting up effective systems for protecting whistleblowers and journalistic sources;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Urges that information on beneficial ownership of companies, trusts and other institutions be made publicly available in open-data formats, in order to prevent anonymous shell companies and similar legal structures from being used to launder money, finance illegal activities or terrorist activities, conceal the identity of corrupt and criminal individuals, hide the theft of public funds and profits from illegal traffic and illegal tax evasion;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the EU and the Member States to enforce the principle that multinational companies, and especially those companies extracting natural resources, must adopt country-by-country reporting (CBCR) as standard, requiring them to publish as part of their annual report on a country-by-country basis for each territory in which they operate the names of all subsidiaries, their financial performance, relevant tax information, assets and number of employees, and to ensure that this information is publicly available; calls on the OECD to recommend that its proposed CBCR template should be made public by all MNCs, to ensure that all tax authorities in all countries are able to access thorough information so they can assess transfer pricing risks and determine the most effective way to deploy audit resources;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the adoption of an Automatic Exchange of Information mechanism, a fundamental tool for enhancing global transparency and cooperation in the fight against tax avoidance and tax evasion; acknowledges, however, that support and time is needed for developing countries to build the required capacity to send and process information; therefore stresses the importance of ensuring that the new OECD Global Standard on Automatic Exchange of Information include a transition period for developing countries, recognising that by making this standard reciprocal, those countries that do not have the resources and capacity to set up the necessary infrastructure to collect, manage and share the required information might effectively be excluded; moreover, considers that a single standard on confidentiality should be envisaged;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. UStrongly supports the range of existing international initiatives to reform the global system, with a focus on the increased participation of developing countries in the structures and procedures of international tax cooperation; urges the EU and the Member States to ensure that the UN taxation committee is transformed into a genuine intergovernmental body equipped with additional resources, ensuring that developing countries can participate equally in the global reform of existing international tax rules;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Stresses that gender analysis should be made central to tax justice, recognising that while tax evasion has an impact on the welfare of individuals across the world, it is especially damaging to poor and lower- income households, in many of which women are disproportionately represented;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the EIB to ensure that companies that receive EIB support do not participate in tax evasion and avoidance via offshore centres and tax havens, and to increase its transparency policy by, for example, making publicly available all of its reports and investigations;