The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker , appeared by surprise at the media after the weekly meeting of the College to inform LuxLeak revelations of the scandal tax treaties as the Duchy of Luxembourg (Juncker chaired between 1995 and 2013) and hundreds of multinational companies.
Juncker, who has admitted he has been “An error had not shown his face for a week” but “the worst mistakes without malice” , however reiterated that these controversial practice, called ‘tax rulings’ are “entrenched practices in 22 Member States. The Commission has stated many times that the rules and the tax advantages rulings are compatible with Community law, provided they are applied in a non discriminatory way. As long as all investors are treated equally, without discrimination. And that happened. “
Juncker has relied on lack of international tax harmonious . As indicated, “the administrative practices of the Duchy allow these decisions and everything has been done according to national and international rules of the art.” But while he admitted that “as a result of the interaction between national rules and international situations may arise that lead to lower tax rates, and the interaction of national rules that vary may be tax situations that do not meet the requirements of the concept tax justice. “
Therefore, the Commission President has called for a transparency, cooperation and coordination . “Throughout my life I have worked to be more tax harmonization. I’ve said defending VAT rates from the Luxembourg presidency. I’ve done on the taxation of savings or accepting that tax withholding are made, and defending a code of conduct of unfair tax competition, a code that has led many countries to change their legal practices. “
And following that same logic, the commissioner has proposed today Moscovici working on a new directive” to the corporate tax automatic exchange of information on tax decisions is included. That all states with tax rulings have to inform the rest of it are within the automatic exchange of information. “
is, it mandatory to share classified information until now and that, in fact, historically has opposed Luxembourg.
Juncker, who tomorrow will travel to Australia for the G-20 in Brisbane, has advanced to propose here that this mechanism of automatic exchange “extends to the entire international community. As Europe is not the only affected should make proposals. ”
“Nothing in my past I want organization indicates that tax evasion in Europe. What has happened is the result of the lack of harmonization. Therefore, proposing automatic exchange, we hope that all Member States to continue to the Commission, “he added.
The president has ensured that if any” no conflict of interest and can be no conflict of interest “because the curator Vestagher, responsible for competition,” has the highest determining the time of undertaking this procedure autonomy. It is always the rule of the Commission. “
The president has complained about the headlines that say that a situation occurs,” Juncker against Juncker “and has said: “No, I’m am not the architect of the Luxembourg model because no model like or as said finance ministers may give instructions to the tax authorities, but the Administration acts autonomously Yes,.. I am politically responsible for what happened there. Yes, of course I am politically responsible “
Asked about the specific business cases uncovered by the International Consortium of Journalists, Luxembourg has said.” I have not read the 28,000 pages, can not, but when an administration tax measures that could result in a situation of lack of taxation are taken … this I do regret it. “
No comments:
Post a Comment