Activities of Leonardo DOMENICI related to 2009/2174(INI)
Reports (1)
REPORT Report on promoting good governance in tax matters PDF (233 KB) DOC (119 KB)
Amendments (12)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the lack of good governance in tax matters encourages tax fraud and tax evasion and has serious consequences for Member States’ budgets and the European Union’s resource system, corresponding to 2.5 % of the European Union’s GDP per annum; whereas this leads to violations of the principle of fair and transparent taxation; whereas honest businesses are at a competitive disadvantage because of tax fraud; and whereas the loss of tax revenue due to tax fraud is ultimately met by taxpaying citizens of the European Union through other forms of taxation,
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas, according to some estimates, tax fraud across all tax systems in the European Union amounts to more than EUR 200 billion a year, which represents more than 2 % of the European Union’s GDP; whereas the economic recovery plan proposed by the Commission to combat the consequences of the financial crisis amounts to around 1 % of the European Union’s GDP, which shows that the fight against tax fraud is clearly a major economic issue; whereas good governance in tax matters should result in more resources being made available to Member States and to developing countries in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals,
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas tax governance is an important pre-condition for preserving the integrity of financial markets, for maintaining favourable conditions for fair competition, and for enhancing the functioning of the internal market; whereas the financial crisis has shed new light on the consequences of the lack of good tax governance, showing the risks associated with opaque jurisdictions; , and showing their potential not only for fuelling systemic risks but also seriously for undermining the Member States’ sovereignty in tax matters,
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas there is evidence that the financial crisis was driven by new types of complex financial instruments and derivatives placed, to a large extent, in funds domiciled in secrecy jurisdictions; whereas that evidence shows that many financial institutions involved in the financial crisis had off-balance-sheet liabilities in their accounts which were located in tax havens,
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Considers that good tax governance, understood as transparency and, exchange of information at all levels, iseffective cross- border cooperation and fair tax competition, to be a key element in the reconstruction of the global economy after the 2008 financial collapse;,
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Recalls that the Parliament has delivered its opinposition to the Council on amendments to Directive 2003/48/EC, asking, inter alia, for the Council to end to the temporal derogation that allows Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg to avoid exchanging information by applying a withholding tax; urges the Council to adopt the directive amending Directive 2003/48/EC in accordance with Parliament’s position;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Recalls that VAT-related tax fraud is a matter of particular concern for the functioning of the internal market in so far as it has a direct cross-border impact, involves substantial amounts of lost revenue and directly affects the EU budget; urges the Council to adopt a directive on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation and to fight fraud in the area of VAT, taking due account of Parliament’s position;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls for increased cooperation, such as the automatic exchange of information between countries, so as to ease the recovery of capital flow abroad via illegal activity to the detriment of the internal market;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Considers that the EU should actively promote the improvement of the OECD standards, with the aim of making the automatic, multilateral exchange of information the global standard; urges the EU, furthermore, to adopt measures that prevent abuse of the ‘residence principle’ bya common approach to the application of arntificial domicile and ownership schemes allowing holding companies with no activity or shell companies to shield beneficial owners from paying taxes in their country of domicil-abuse measures, which should be effective, fair and aligned with the concept of wholly artificial arrangements as established by the Court of Justice;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Urges the EU to implement a consistent approach to good tax governance in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy, the enlargement policy and the development cooperation policy; stresses that the tax governance policy should actively contribute to building sustainable and transparent tax systems in developing countries, in particular with a view to eradicating tax fraud, which leads to an annual loss of tax revenue corresponding to 10 times the amount of injected development aid from the developed countries; considers that an appropriate level of resources must be allocated to reach that objective; recalls that tax governance will ultimately attract investment in so far as it contributes to legal tax certainty, transparency and stability;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Emphasises the need for Member States to coordinate their policies in order to reinforce the implementation of anti- avoidance rules; calls furthermore for increased Member State cooperation in implementing anti-amnesty programmes and in tackling ‘forum-shopping’ practices;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Urges the EU to examine a range of options for sanctions and incentives to promote good tax governance such as a special levy on all movements to or from non-cooperative jurisdictions, the non- recognition, within the EU, of the legal status of companies set up in non- cooperative jurisdictions and the prohibition for EU financial institutions to establish or maintain subsidiaries and branches in non-cooperative jurisdictions; calls for the introduction of a financial transaction tax so as to reduce speculation and increase efforts towards the tackling of tax havens with the aim of establishing sound long-term financial stability;