EU forced to back down on plan for multinational tax transparency – Andrew Parkes

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Andrew Parkes, National Technical Director at Andersen, comments on the news that 12 EU states have rejected move to expose companies’ tax avoidance.

Andrew’s comments were published in Accountancy Daily, 29 November 2019, and can be found here.

“The proposal was first suggested over three years ago in the wake of the Panama Papers leak and would have seen mandatory country by country reporting for multinational companies about their tax payment data by member states.

In the latest discussion at Council level during Finland’s presidency, 12 EU member states rejected the proposals so they will not go forward to the European parliament.

MEPs in favour of the transparency directive stressed that citizens have a right to know where multinationals pay their taxes and that this is essential to limit the recurrent scandals which have come to light in recent years. They also said that if the EU was unable to tackle tax havens within its own walls, it would be difficult for Europe to be credible on the international stage when it came to tax matters.

Andrew Parkes, national technical director at Andersen said: ‘It comes as no surprise that Ireland was among the 12 countries that voted against the proposal given their reliance on US technology firms. However, possibly of more interest is Germany abstaining.’”

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