In its report, the European Parliament in particular:

• stresses that fragmentation of national tax policies can have a distortive effect on the EU single market and also be harmful for the EU economy, and welcomes the European Commission’s recent communication on business taxation for the 21st century which states that ‘the lack of a common corporate tax system in the Single Market acts as a drag on competitiveness […] and creates a competitive disadvantage compared to third country markets’.
• notes that compliance by the Member States with country-specific recommendations (CSRs) on taxation via European Semester can yield improved coordination on this matter; deplores however that some Member States have not (yet) implemented CSRs on aggressive tax planning.
• calls on the Member States to swiftly agree on anambitious proposal for a European corporate tax rulebook.
• welcomes the historic agreement reached within the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on the reform of the international tax system which suggests that multinational enterprises be subject to a 15 % effective tax rate and urges the Commission and the Member States to work together and ensure a swift transposition of the agreement into EU law.

It also calls on the Member States to continue reforming tax authorities and welcomes the fact that that since 2011, the scope of the EU directive on administrative cooperation (DAC) cooperation between Member States’ tax authorities with the aim of ensuring the proper functioning of the single market has been continuously widened to new domains in order to curb tax fraud and tax avoidance and that considerable progress has been made in the past decade.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “We welcome many of the suggestions put forth in the European Parliament’s new own-initiative report on impacts of national tax reforms on the EU economy. As the voice of tax-paying workers and tax administration personnel across Europe, CESI stresses the need of a holistic and ambitious EU business taxation environment where adequate taxes are paid effectively and where companies are taxed where they operate and make profits. This environment must be based on a level-playing field with common rules that prevent a race to the bottom in corporate taxation rates and close loopholes that allow for aggressive tax planning, tax avoidance and tax evasion.”

He added: “CESI has repeatedly highlighted the importance of investments in the training, employment and working conditions of staff of national tax administrations and tax inspectorates and in digital equipment and resources for them. Tax rules and systems on paper are always only as a strong as tax administrations are effectively able to collect due taxes.”