03/03/21

GLOBAL REGULATION: The EU Wants New Legislation For More Transparent Multinationals.

As published on swordstoday.ie, Wednesday 3 March, 2021.

The European Union will enact new legislation to force multinational corporations to disclose the amount of taxes in each member state and the amount of their operations.

Justice and tax equality activists believe the move will deter multinational corporations and member states from pursuing aggressive tax avoidance policies.

The biggest obstacle to tax justice is the lack of transparency. And tax evasion grows when citizens, governments, and the media fail to see exactly what multinational corporations are doing.This proposal will not only deal with the tax component in any way, but will also give more transparency to all the operations of a multinational company “,” he said. Says Sorly McCoy, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Christian Aid.

The regulation only applies to companies with an annual turnover of more than 750 million euros., Which excludes nine out of ten multinational companies. So this only applies to the world’s largest companies, Apple, Facebook and Google.

Multinational corporations avoid taxes by shifting profits from high-tax countries such as France and Germany … to low-tax countries such as Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus and the Netherlands.

However, some states, such as Ireland, voted against the proposal.

“We are open and transparent. It is clear that we are also very competitive. If you look at any analysis, you’ll see companies making losses in some countries. “ Says Irish MEP Billy Keller.

The decision was taken by the European Union’s Competitiveness Council, which is not one of the usual European Union finance ministers to demand unanimity and allow Ireland to exercise its veto power.

However, the Commission’s decision is justified by the reports of the companies and not by the financial decisions of the member states.