Today, the European Parliament’s committee on economic affairs voted on several tax files that are of strategic importance for the future of taxation in the EU, including the report on taxation in times of crisis. In this report, we managed to secure two important points - we are calling on the Commission to look at the extension of the windfall tax to other sectors profiting from crises, and to support countries willing to tax capital more fairly.
These points are also important in the context of the debate on the future of taxation in the EU taking place today and Wednesday at the EU Tax Symposium. The event is co-hosted by the European Parliament and the European Commission, with the participation of our S&D MEPs Aurore Lalucq, Evelyn Regner and Paul Tang.
Jonás Fernández, MEP and S&D spokesperson on economic and monetary affairs, said:
“Today, we have managed to ward off conservatives’ continuous attempts to obstruct tax justice. Fairer taxation is key to ensure a fair future for everyone. This is what Europeans are asking for - to fix an unfair system where regular people pay their taxes, whilst the most powerful and the richest refuse to play by the rules and often pay little or no taxes.
“This week’s focus on taxation must serve as a reminder that the EU needs to further strengthen tax justice with all possible means. The arsenal to fight for more fairness in taxation must include the extension of the windfall tax to more sectors and an EU minimum tax on capital gains.”
Aurore Lalucq, MEP and S&D spokesperson on taxation, added:
“This is an important victory for tax justice. To ensure the efficient role of taxation in times of crises, we need to extend the windfall tax to other sectors profiting from crises. At the EU level, countries have so far only agreed on a temporary solidarity contribution deriving from energy companies’ excess profits. We need to go further, and we deplore the reluctance of the European People’s Party to do what is fair and reasonable.
“Unfortunately, we have also been observing the same damaging attitude from the conservatives on the issue of taxing capital. They keep on blocking a call for a minimum tax on capital gains at the European level, which would reverse the trend of curbing the taxes of top earners and help prevent wealth shifting and tax avoidance across the EU. They even object to issuing guidance on this for the willing member states, which is ludicrous.
“The urgency of this issue was also highlighted in the Global Tax Evasion Report published yesterday by the EU Tax Observatory. It exposed once again an acute lack of effort to address a considerable deficit when it comes to taxing capital. A bare minimum should be to ensure a fairer taxation of capital gains, which we have long been calling for.”
