WIREDGOV

The Conference of Presidents of political groups has decided yesterday, with the vote in favour of all political groups, to set up a temporary committee to follow up on the work done by the Special Committee on Tax Rulings, which looked into the tax rulings practised by various EU member states. The new committee will last six months.

Its precise mandate will be decided at a special meeting of the Conference of Presidents next Wednesday, following negotiations between the experts of the political groups, and submitted for approval by the plenary on the very same day. It should be based on that of the previous tax rulings committee. The group leaders also recommended that the composition of the new committee should be the same as that of the old one.

The tax rulings committee’s final report was approved by Parliament as a whole on Wednesday 25 November. In the resolution which went with the report, Parliament set out its ideas on how to make corporate taxes fairer across Europe and urged EU member states to agree on mandatory country-by-country reporting by multinationals of profits and taxes, a common consolidated corporate tax base, common definitions for tax terms and more transparency and accountability with regard to their – so far secret - national tax “rulings” for companies.