member in public practice | member engaged in public practice

P. whereas the legislator and often insufficiently resourced tax administrations cannot anticipate, but only react, sometimes with great delay, to the innovative tax avoidance schemes which are designed and promoted by some tax advisers, in particular from very large accountancy firms, by lawyers and by intermediary companies; whereas, in particular, experience shows that EU bodies which should prevent the introduction of new harmful tax measures (such as the Code of Conduct Group set up by Member States in 1998 or the Commission, a ...[+++]s guardian of the Treaties) have proved incapable of countering these undesirable developments, sometimes reacting in an ineffective way or on the basis of too a limited mandate, and that many new and often aggressive tax avoidance measures or agreements, such as patent boxes, have been introduced in the EU; whereas MNCs are relying, in the EU and worldwide, on the expertise of a well-organised and skilled sector of tax advisers, as well as banks and other financial service providers, for the development of their tax avoidance schemes; whereas this sector is at the same time represented in bodies advising governments and public institutions on tax matters, such as, for instance, the EU Platform for Tax Good Governance; whereas there are concerns over the conflicts of interest that might arise from the provision by the same firms of advice to both public authorities and private MNCs;

P. whereas the legislator and often insufficiently resourced tax administrations cannot anticipate, but only react, sometimes with great delay, to the innovative tax avoidance schemes which are designed and promoted by some tax advisers, in particular from very large accountancy firms, by lawyers and by intermediary companies; whereas, in particular, experience shows that EU bodies which should prevent the introduction of new harmful tax measures (such as the Code of Conduct Group set up by Member States in 1998 or the Commission, as ...[+++] guardian of the Treaties) have proved incapable of countering these undesirable developments, sometimes reacting in an ineffective way or on the basis of too a limited mandate, and that many new and often aggressive tax avoidance measures or agreements, such as patent boxes, have been introduced in the EU; whereas MNCs are relying, in the EU and worldwide, on the expertise of a well-organised and skilled sector of tax advisers, as well as banks and other financial service providers, for the development of their tax avoidance schemes; whereas this sector is at the same time represented in bodies advising governments and public institutions on tax matters, such as, for instance, the EU Platform for Tax Good Governance; whereas there are concerns over the conflicts of interest that might arise from the provision by the same firms of advice to both public authorities and private MNCs;

AD. whereas some of the committee’s work was hindered by the fact that a number of the Member States and the Council did not reply in due time (see Annex 2) and, in the end, did not forward all the documents requested or simply made courtesy replies that hardly touched upon the substance of the requests made; whereas out of 18 MNCs invited (excluding accounting and tax advising firms), only four agreed to appear before the committee (see Annex 3); whereas the Commission did not fully cooperate either and send all room documents and informal meeting notes from the Code of Conduct meetings, only offering, because of some Member States’ i ...[+++]ntransigence, a limited consultation procedure; whereas the committee’s term of office therefore had to be extended;

B. whereas issues related to corporate tax base erosion and aggressive tax planning practices have been known and analysed at international level for several decades at least; whereas LuxLeaks brought public and media attention to those issues, disclosing questionable tax practices promoted by accountancy firms in one specific Member State; whereas the Commission’s investigations and the work carried out by Parliament through its special committee have shown that this is not the only case, but that taking tax measures to reduce some large corporations’ overall tax liabilities so as to artificially increase the national tax ba ...[+++]se at the expense of other countries, some of which are subject to austerity measures, is a practice that is widespread within Europe and beyond;