Revised corporate tax base proposal gets new EU consultation

A new public consultation project has been launched by The European Commission to test the waters for a re-launch of the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) proposal.

In another move aimed at tackling aggressive tax planning by large companies and high net worth individuals, the Commission wants to find out how the new tool would be accepted and implemented.

Single market

At the core of the EU lies the idea of the single market, and any major moves by the Commission need to take into account the necessity of keeping a business-friendly environment in operation across the current 28 nation strong membership.

The new consultation is aimed at finding agreement on rules that would encourage research and development activity and also address the "debt bias" problem.

Best instrument

Pierre Moscovici, EU Tax Commissioner explained: "I remain convinced that the CCCTB is the best instrument for fighting cross-border tax abuse and tax fraud and for easing the administrative burden on companies operating in the EU. We very much hope that the views collected in this public consultation will help us to present in 2016 a revised proposal that is balanced and beneficial to all."

At the moment, the introduction of CCCTB is set to take place over two stages, with an initial move to set up a common tax base without consolidation (CCTB). This would allow EU member states to set their own corporate tax rate.

A cross-border loss relief mechanism is also under consideration, which would balance any negative effects that the CCTB phase might cause.