TAXATION, EU HOMOGENEOUS POLICIES NEEDED AMONG MEMBER STATES
"The CNEL, while aware that tax policies have always been matters for individual Member States, believes that the time has come for the European Union to come up with solutions, at least on the broad outlines of tax policies, which are shared and basically uniform for all the acceding countries".
This is what emerges from the Document of Observations and Proposals approved by the CNEL Assembly, entitled "International tax principles and digitalization of the economy: observations for fair taxation" (speakers were Vice-President Elio Catania and Councillor Gian Paolo Gualaccini).
"It is therefore necessary to work on a shared, fair, efficient, growth-friendly European taxation, capable of eliminating competitive distortions," writes the Assembly of Villa Lubin.
On the digital economy front, "The CNEL believes that national 'web taxes' involve the risk of a legislative fragmentation that amplifies that already existing at European level in the field of digital taxation – reads the document - Taxation should be inspired by the OECD principles and not to hit the traditional contributory capacity indices (income and assets) but other indicators that estimate the value created with digital goods / services with a good level of approximation. If agreed solutions are not reached within the OECD deadline of 2020, the European Union must make autonomous choices. "
"The CNEL hopes that work will be done primarily on the abnormal asymmetry of tax systems between countries, and that a rapid review of the taxation mechanisms will be carried out. Unilateral initiatives by individual states should be avoided and in any case evaluated with the utmost attention to exclude interpretative risks, complexity of implementation and negative repercussions on local businesses or on innovation processes in progress", says Vice-President Catania.
"As reported by the CNEL Observations and Proposals Document, the hope is that the OECD proposal on a shared universal web tax, presented in Washington during the IMF's work, will be discussed and approved quickly", adds councillor Gualaccini.
Download the Observations and Proposals Document