Tax – Move to More Qualified Majority Voting?

The Commission has published a Communication to open a debate on introducing more qualified majority voting (QMV) on tax matters. The Commission claims that the current requirement of unanimity for the adoption of tax legislation is costly and blocks the adoption of vital legislation. It proposes a 4-step approach towards QMV starting with measures that improve cooperation between Member States to fight tax evasion and fraud, including on tax reporting. Meanwhile, the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council has presented an update on the public country-by-country reporting (CbCR) proposal. The proposal, part of the OECD and EU tax transparency agenda, requires large multinationals to publish country-by-country information on where they make their profits and where they pay tax. A German-based family business foundation has highlighted research showing that the EU proposal, which goes further than the OECD measures, would be harmful for business and would conflict with EU data protection rules.

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