Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-04-18-Speech-3-458-000"
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"en.20120418.24.3-458-000"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow, we will have the opportunity to vote in favour of a common consolidated corporate tax base. This will mean the introduction of a new Community tax framework which will contain a complete set of rules for the calculation of individual results for every company and branch of a company, wherever they are established in the European Union.
Under this system, group profit and loss results will be consolidated and that consolidated tax base, if it is positive, will be allocated across all relevant Member States. Member States will then be able to apply their own tax rate to the portion allocated to them using a system where the entire administrative process will be managed by a single main tax authority.
With this CCCTB, we will be making it fiscally simpler and administratively cheaper for companies to develop transnationally, which will definitely open up new opportunities for SMEs. Moreover, we will be making taxation more transparent. We will be preventing overtaxation and double taxation, as well as any manipulation undertaken for the purposes of tax evasion. And, we will undoubtedly be making Europe more attractive for foreign investors.
Ladies and gentlemen, our report retains the architecture of the excellent proposal drafted by the Commission, but it shows more ambition. That fits in perfectly with the double battle we are fighting today and have been discussing all afternoon.
If we want to revive our economy and make it more competitive, we need to be prepared to do away with all barriers in the internal market, including those in the field of direct taxation. And if we want to resolve the debt crisis, we also, obviously, have to ensure that Member States are able to collect the taxes due to them. With this proposal, we will be helping to achieve both of these things.
Let no one here, therefore, invoke the crisis in order to kick everything into the long grass or take the soft line. No, if anything, the crisis should make our ambition and our sense of urgency even stronger.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would draw your attention to three points in particular: first of all, the optional nature of the system. Though the CCCTB will start out as optional, we do think that, if the system proves to be good enough for optional use, it will also be good enough to be made compulsory. Indeed, its benefits will increase with the number of users. And that is why we have proposed a road map which will gradually make the system compulsory over a period of five years for all companies, except for SMEs. For SMEs, we first want to assess the practicality of the system and develop an instrument to guide them in the use of the system.
Secondly, we need to consider the scope of harmonisation. This proposal does not address rates, but only the taxable base, the basis on which tax is levied. As regards tariffs, Member States will retain their full sovereignty. However, we do explicitly ask that this matter be included in the revision clause, in a way that will subsequently enable us to examine whether or not, and to what extent, any continuing tax competition between Member States is beneficial or harmful for the Europe that we want to develop together – one that seeks to establish a social market economy.
Thirdly and finally, Mr President, we think that we have to make headway. If the Council fails to reach consensus with the 27 Member States – and it is a pity that the Council is again not being represented here – we will ask the Commission to immediately start the procedure to implement the proposal with close cooperation."@en1
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