EU: Ministers move to clamp down on corporate tax-dodging

EU ministers agreed Tuesday that national authorities would automatically exchange information on tax deals with multinationals, but critics said failing to make them public means the tax avoidance practices that led to the LuxLeaks scandal would continue.

The new measure passed despite resistance and comes as European competition authorities investigate the tax affairs of Apple in Ireland and Starbucks in the Netherlands.

“We have a political deal,” said Pierre Gramegna, finance minister for Luxembourg, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

“Europe is showing the way, is a pioneer and is sending a strong signal to the world in tax matters,” he told a news briefing.

Under the plan, the bloc’s 28 countries would share information about the deals agreed with some of the world’s biggest multinationals so as to help rein in tax avoidance in Europe.

The deals however would still remain out of the public eye, with the exchange of information strictly limited to tax authorities.

“We chose not to have a public transparency but to have exchange between administrations and this will be respected,” said the EU’s top economics affairs official, Commissioner Pierre Moscovici.

Full content: The Financial Times

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