Activities of Andżelika Anna MOŻDŻANOWSKA related to 2022/2080(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations
Amendments (18)
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the Pandora Papers revealed how high-net-worth individuals, including politically exposed persons, criminals, public officials and celebritiecriminals, public officials, celebrities and – something particularly shocking and scandalous – politically exposed persons, are assisted by intermediaries, such as banks, accountants and law firms, in designing complex corporate structures registered in secrecy jurisdictions or tax havens in close cooperation with offshore professional service providers in order to shield income and assets from taxation and possibly launder money;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights the role of international investigative journalism and whistleblowers in exposing tax avoidance and evasion, corruption, organised crime and money laundering; deems it necessary to further protect the confidentiality of the sources of investigative journalism, including whistleblowers; draws attention to the many cases that have recently come to light in which spyware has been used to conduct surveillance on journalists in the EU and points out that these are extremely worrying and indicative of the hypocrisy of the political elites who pursue transparency in public life;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Regrets the fact that only 10 Member States have passed legislation to transpose the Whistleblowers Directive7, 15 are still in the process of doing so, and two have taken no or minimal action; points out that the implementation and application of existing rules are crucial to harmonious cooperation within the EU; _________________ 7 Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law, OJ L 305, 26.11.2019, p. 17.
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Highlights the importance of safeguarding high standards of integrity, honesty and responsibility among public officials in the EU, as well as fostering, within that environment, an ethos of service and personal honesty; calls on the Member States to ensure that they have measures and systems in place requiring public officials to declare any outside activities, employment, investments, assets and substantial gifts or benefits which may give rise to a conflict of interest with respect to their functions as public officials; highlights the importance of having systems in place to report and verify this information and independently assess conflicts of interest when they arise;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Points out that the so-called big four major accountancy firms – PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG – account for 87 % of the global tax advisory market share8; emphasises the threats that such a de facto oligopoly poses to the advisory market itself and when it comes to the potential influence that these firms’ lobbyists can wield over tax regulations; _________________ 8 ‘Global tax advisory revenues top $20bn’, Accountancy Daily, 28 January 2019.
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Regrets the fact that, as exposed by the Pandora Papers9, PwC, along with other western firms, had a central role in assisting Russian oligarchs with their investments in the West through their networks of offshore shell companies10; regrets the absence of visible investigations into the intermediary sector in the EU following the Pandora Papers and the EU’s sanctions on Russian oligarchs; callpoints onut the authorities in the Member States to investigate any wrongdoing by these firmsat, in view of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its hybrid actions against EU countries, investigations into the assets and investments of Russian oligarchs should be a top priority as they are strategically important for the EU’s security; _________________ 10 ‘How Western Firms Quietly Enabled Russian Oligarchs’, The New York Times, 9 March 2022. 9 ‘The oligarch’s accountants: How PwC helped a Russia steel baron grow his offshore empire’, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Pandora Papers, 11 April 2022.
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Points out that global professional services firms possess a capacity as ‘career hubs’, where 68 % of transfer pricing professionals in multinational corporations had worked in a global professional services firm before11; is aware of examples of tax authority officials going on to work in such firms or multinational corporations immediately after; calls on the Member States to regulate the phenomenon of revolving doors, including cooling-off periods, with regard to officials in tax administrations; emphasises the extreme hypocrisy of the political elites in this area and the pressing need for the public to be made aware of this phenomenon in order for it to be stigmatised to a sufficient extent and effectively purged from public life; _________________ 11 Christensen, R.C., ‘Transnational Infrastructural Power of Professional Service Firms’, SocArXiv, 9 September 2022.
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise and address the risks of conflicts of interest stemming from the provision of legal advice, tax advice and auditing services when advising both corporate clients and public authorities; reiterates its call on the Commission to propose measurespoints out that one way of doing this could be to clearly separate accountancy firms from financial or tax service providers as well as all advisory services;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission to extend reporting requirements under the sixth Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC6)12 to cross-border arrangements for the management of assets of clients who are natural persons; emphasises that because taxation remains a matter for the Member States, honest and fair cooperation among national tax authorities is crucial to ensuring that the tax system within the EU is watertight; _________________ 12 Council Directive (EU) 2018/822 of 25 May 2018 amending Directive 2011/16/EU as regards mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation in relation to reportable cross-border arrangements, OJ L 139, 5.6.2018, p. 1.
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Highlights the fact that, as the Pandora Papers have exposed, schemes to shield the assets of high-net-worth individuals from state authorities through corporate offshore services have become highly sophisticated and ever more common; draws attention to the impact of new technologies (e.g. crypto-assets), which create new challenges in the area of tax avoidance and money laundering, for which new, appropriate and precise regulations may be needed;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Observes, in parallel, a growing trend for countries, and EU Member States in particular, to adopt legal frameworks designed to attract high-net-worth individuals, foreign pensioners and highly skilled workers to invest or live in their territory, notably granting them generous tax benefits and exemptions which do not apply to nationals, in addition to offering golden visas and selling citizenship opportunities; points out that the privileges granted in this way often relate to Russian oligarchs whose proven or alleged links to the Russian authorities pose a serious danger to individual countries and the EU as a whole;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Is concerned that there is considerable scope for harmful competition in this field and widening social and economic inequalities, as tax-induced mobility is high among income- and wealth-rich taxpayers13; draws attention, in this context, to the growing phenomenon of so-called 'digital nomads' and urges that efforts towards the harmonisation and simplification of tax systems in the EU serve to create a level playing field for this group as well as for on-location-based workers; _________________ 13 European Parliament Directorate- General for Internal Policies, Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies, Harmful Practices and Competition in the Area of Personal Income and Wealth Taxation, January 2022.
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls forSuggests that the Council consider expanding the scope of the Code of Conduct Group on Business Taxation to be expanded, in particular to include preferential personal income or capital tax regimes, or personal income and wealth tax regimes that could lead to significant distortions in the single market; considers that this could enable the scope of the Code of Conduct Group to capture regimes aimed at attracting high net worth and high levels of income not created in the Member State proposing the tax regime;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Welcomes the adoption of the first final rule on beneficial ownership reporting under the US Corporate Transparency Act; regrets the lack of political will in the US to share information regarding the financial accounts of non-US citizens; reiterates its call on the US to join the OECD Common Reporting Standard as soon as possible;
Amendment 143 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Welcomes the Commission proposal for a Council directive laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU14; calls on the Council to swiftly adopt the proposal once Parliament has submitted its opinion; _________________ 14 COM(2021)0565.
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Is deeply disappointed byAcknowledges the failure of finance ministers to adopt the much-needed reform of the Code of Conduct for Business Taxation on 7 December 2021, after several unsuccessful attempts; condemns Hungary and Estonia, in particular, for blockdraws attention to the need to find solutions in this area that can gain unanimous support ing the reformCouncil;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18