Activities of Birgit SCHNIEBER-JASTRAM related to 2010/2102(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on Tax and Development – Cooperating with Developing Countries on Promoting Good Governance in Tax Matters PDF (275 KB) DOC (180 KB)
Amendments (17)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas developing countries face important challenges in raising tax revenues due to insufficient human and financial resources to collect taxes, weak administrative capacity, corruption, lack of legitimacy of the political system and unequalan uneven distribution of revenues,
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the major forms of illicit financial flows and capital flight include transfer mispricing, round-tripping, tax incentives and tax competition between countries to attract FDI, anddouble-dipping, bulk cash movements, opaque and disadvantageous investment protocols, and smuggling;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the possibility of enhancing domestic resource mobilisation is further weakenaffected by the global context, characterised by customs tariff liberalisation of increasing integration within the international markets,
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes with concern that the tax system in many poor countries remains characterised by extremely narrow tax bases, tax exemptions for the elite, a huge informal economy, massive revenues from natural resources going unaccounted for, and high illicit capital flows related to massive tax evasion;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Underlines that globalisation exacerbathe EU should help developing countries in building up tax systems the fiscal problems of developing countriesat allow them to benefit from the process of globalisation;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses that the decline in trade taxes, resulting from WTO obligations and regional trade agreements, has posed acuteposes problems for the poorest countries that have at best replaced about 30% of their lost trade taxesas long as those losses are not made good by gains through a broadened tax base, that aim being the main focus of the Commission's proposal;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Urges the Commission to upgrade its assistance to strengthenassist the tax authorities, the judiciary and the anti-corruption agencies in developing countries, in their efforts to build up a progressive and sustainable tax system that will eventually bring a 'governance dividend' through increased legitimacy and accountability, and to effectively integrate the principles of good governance in tax matters into the programming, implementation and monitoring of country and regional strategy papers, and to systematically include clauses on good governance in future trade agreements;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Recalls thate benefits of tax competition affects the way the tax burden is distributed between owners of capital and wage earners; underlines that the costs of tax competition are higher for developing countries since they derive a larger part of their tax to attract Foreign Direct Investment, which creates well-paid jobs and in turn increases income tax revenues; notes that the decline in revenues because of that competition should be addressed by broadening the tax base or by abstaining from that competition altogether if convenient and if other factors like good governance, legal security and prevenuestion from capital and have little possibility to collect alternative taxes; considers that multinational enterprises should pay a fair share of taxes, while developing countriesnationalisation can be harnessed in the competition for FDI; points out that low-income countries need the capacity to effectively negotiate with multinational corporations in order to secure an equitable public share in any resource rents and recalls that they should have adequate policy space to impose capital controls; as the right to collect and redistribute tax revenues is a key criterion for the sovereignty and legitimacy of states and therefore a prerequisite for good governance;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Points out that the French government has commissioned research on the topic of political incentives for taxation, but more is needed; therefore asks the Commission to study whether different approaches to transferring aid, e.g. grants versus loans, could help to limit or offset the potentially negative effects of aid on revenue raising; and whether budget support and related improvements in transparency and effectiveness of public expenditure management contribute over the longer term to increased willingness of citizens to pay tax;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Notes that too little attention has been paid to how governments can use tax policies to reduce inequalities in income and well-being by minimizing existing gender differences in tax liabilities;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Urges the development of initiatives to promote greater transparency in natural resource rents, inter alia through the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative; welcomes the adoption of the new US ‘Congo Conflict Minerals’ Law and Transparency Amendments to the Financial Regulatory Reform Bill and asks the Commission to propose a legislative initiative along this line without diminishing responsibility of the governments in the developing world, and without placing an undue bureaucratic burden on companies as that has already been criticised by stakeholders in the developing world and could prove counterproductive;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Stresses that exploitation of natural resources should be pursued in order to help a country meet its broader social and economic goals; for governments in developing countries this means to outline a vision, if so desired together with international stakeholders and expertise, of how the resource sector fits in the country’s economic future; for some countries the best use of resource endowments may be to leave them in the ground for future use; for others, it may be to extract rapidly, as an intermediary source of domestic revenue, in order to generate revenues to sustain the investment necessary for growth and to meet urgent human needs;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12b. Points out that developing countries should be equal partners in the discussion and adoption of new initiatives in the sector of resource extraction; stresses that new arrangements in this field should take the form of a generalised international standards in order to avoid the creation of another patchwork of regulations which would be counterproductive from the point of view of governments, tax administration and international companies;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 c (new)
Paragraph 12 c (new)
12c. Stresses that the proposals of the Commission and non-governmental transparency initiatives for the sector of extractive industries, e.g. the Natural Resource Charter, the Equator Principles and the Guidelines for Investors and Companies by 'Critical Resource', are in effect pro-business; they produce legal security, sustainable long-time partnerships and pose as safeguards against renationalization, reopening of negotiations or expulsion; notes that there are problems to be addressed as well, for instance the fact that businesses may have to disclose commercially sensitive information which puts them at a competitive disadvantage, or that some agreements with governments are based on information being kept secret;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 d (new)
Paragraph 12 d (new)
12d. Notes that resource rents should always be seen as an intermediary means to increase domestic revenue; points out that success in taxation of resources often brings advances in direct taxes, such as corporate income taxes, and non-tax revenues, such as royalty fees;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recalls that the quality of financial reporting is crucial to combat tax evasion effectively; insists that the IASB includesasks the Commission to promote the inclusion of a requirement within itsthe International Financial Reporting Standard a requirementof the IASB that all multinational corporations report their income and tax paid on a country-by- country basis;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Expresses its concern about the unfortunate effect of tax treaties on the distribution of tax revenues; notes that the method of assignConsiders that international deliberation should be undertaken withing the right to tax based on the domicile principle rather than the source country helps to make tax havens a more favourable location; deems that tax treaties should be reviewed for fairness, which implies the possibility of granting the primary right to tax in the source country where real activities are pursuedUnited Nations on the effects of taxation arrangements regarding multinational businesses on the tax base of less developed countries;