Fighting the use of shell entities and arrangements for tax purposes

We would like to thank the EU Commission for the opportunity to submit our comments on the Commision’s Proposal for a Council Directive laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU. In this respect, please find attached our observations

General Introductory Comments As the representative body of the international investment funds community in Ireland, Irish Funds welcomes the opportunity to provide comments on the above consultation. By way of background, Irish Funds represents: • 150+ member organisations; • 15,000+ funds; • 17,000+ industry professionals including asset managers, depositories, administrators, transfer agents, auditors, law firms…

We are pleased to respond on behalf of the Deloitte firms in the European Union to the European Commission Public Consultation on the Proposal published by the European Commission on 22 December 2021 for a Council Directive laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU (the “Proposal”) and welcome the opportunity for debate on this topic.

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the European Commission’s proposal laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes (ATAD 3). AFME welcomes the Commission’s plans to crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion to ensure fair and effective taxation and preserve the integrity of the internal market.

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) is pleased to provide comments to the European Commission Inception Impact Assessment titled Fighting the Use of Shell Entities and Arrangements for Tax Purposes. GLEIF welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to ensure fair and effective taxation in the EU by combatting tax abuse and aggressive tax planning of shell entities.

We thank you for the opportunity to participate in the public consultation on your proposal for a directive laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU. We would like to share with you our understanding of this proposal Directive.

FE Tax Advisers Europe has issued an Opinion Statement on the EU proposal on fighting the use of shell entities and arrangements for tax purposes (Unshell or ATAD3 proposal). CFE Tax Advisers Europe welcomes the work of the European Commission in seeking to reduce tax evasion throughout the EU, the aim of which CFE has always fully supported.

EFAMA is grateful for the opportunity to comment on the Un-shell entities proposal. We are sharing our comments with the Commission, with all Fiscal Attachés/Ministers of Finance of the 27 EU Member States and stands ready to assist and discuss the issues raised in this document with the technical teams of the relevant stakeholders that will work in the upcoming negotiations of this proposal.

The European Banking Federation (EBF) fully supports the EU’s general policy objective to curtail fraudulent and tax abusive behaviour. However, this new anti-tax avoidance initiative raises some concerns, both conceptually and technically.

The European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) is the voice of Europe's listed real estate companies that derive income from the ownership, trading and development of income producing real estate assets. Listed real estate allows anyone, from retail investors to large institutional investors, to invest in the underlying assets of publicly quoted companies, the same way as investing in other industries through…

The Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed Council Directive laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU. Please find our comments in the attached file.

As the European umbrella organisation representing pensions in Europe, PensionsEurope would like to comment on the European Commission Proposal for a Council Directive laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU. Please find our comments in the attached file.

We support of the European Commission’s efforts to tackle avoidance. However, in relation to the Commission’s proposals in relation to “shell entities”, last autumn we were a signatory to a joint industry paper from stakeholders in the real estate investment, built environment and infrastructure sectors which asked the Commissions to rethink its approach.

The Federal Chamber of Tax Advisers (BStBK) represents the interests of more than 100 000 tax advisers in Germany vis-à-vis the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, the Federal Ministries, the heads of civil service, the courts and the institutions of the EU and the OECD.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

We are pleased to submit our feedback and comments on the proposal. As stated in our conclusion, L3A understands that the Commission has the perception that legal entities with no or minimal substance, performing no or minimal economic activity, pose a continuing risk of being used for aggressive tax planning structures across the EU, and welcomes any initiatives to effectively address any cases where this arises.

Assonime — Association of Italian joint stock companies — welcomes the opportunity to provide comments on the Proposal for a Council Directive laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU. Assonime believes that the Proposal raises some issues which should be served in order to lighten the objective being pursed.

Filed in Italian · English published by the European Commission

KPMG member firms in the EU are pleased to provide comments on the European Commission’s (EC’s) proposal for a Council Directive laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU (the Directive).

INREV hopes the views in the attached response reflect a few clear points. The first is that the primary purpose of real estate non-listed funds is to enable collective investment in real estate assets for multiple institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance companies.

Morri Rossetti is a leading Italian tax and law firm. We enthuse the Commission’s work in fighting tax avoidance. In order to help the Commission in better reaching the goal, We made some assumptions in the file attached. In a nutshell, We suggest to provide for a better definition of some of the concepts contained in the “Unshell Directive”.

Filed in Italian · English published by the European Commission

Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici thanks the European Commission for opening the feedback period in relation to the proposal for Council Directive no. COM(2021) 565 final presented on December 22nd, 2021. We do believe that the purpose of fighting entities without substance (mis)used in cross-border situations is very valuable, however the overall framework seems unbalanced in favour of non-EU resident entities in…

Dear Sir/Madam, We thank you for the opportunity to participate in the public consultation on the proposal for a directive on “shell companies” and would like to share with you the following detailed comments and proposed amendments (please see attached). As always, we stand ready to further discuss and explain our views. Yours sincerely, [name removed] – MEDEF

The Deutscher Steuerberaterverband e.V. (DStV) represents some 36 500 professionals, representing more than 60 % of self-employed tax advisors, tax representatives, auditors, certified accountants and professional companies in Germany. The DStV represents its interests in the professional law of tax advisors and accountants, tax law, accounting and auditing.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

Ferrovial Group, one of the world's leading infrastructure operators, welcomes the opportunity to express their views on the proposed “Unshell” Directive. Whereas we share the Comission’s purpose of fighting tax avoidance, we do believe that a careful reconsideration of some of the dispositions of this draft must be made, in order to better reach this common goal. Please, find attached our views on this matter.

This note, attached as PDF, aims to provide the position of the French banking sector on the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive establishing rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes and amending Directive 2011/16/EU.

Filed in French · English published by the European Commission

The IBFD Task Force on EU Law comprises a group of IBFD Academic researchers habitually devoted to independent research on EU law. All of the members of the Task Force are independent scholars. The IBFD Task Force on EU Law is entirely funded by IBFD and does not receive additional funds from private companies or States that may be, directly or indirectly, impacted by the outcome of the relevant public consultation.

The proposed ATAD 3 Directive is a serious crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion through shell entities. In our view, exchange of information of in-scope entities that do not comply with the substance indicators or rebuttal rule, combined with (a) increased cooperation in resulting substance audits and (b) the adjusted declaration of residency, should be sufficient for source countries to act on.

Gisad welcomes the European Commission’s initiative on tax avoidance. Digitalisation has increased tax avoidance. Global digital companies are based in one tax-free country and generate value creation in another country. This opinion only takes into account the situation of digital companies that generate their turnover using the internet.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

Oxfam strongly welcomes the initiative. The European Commission started addressing the problem of lack of real economic activity and substance economic presence in specific initiatives (e.g. state aid guidelines, fair taxation criteria in the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions) but there is a need of a comprehensive and binding instrument to limit the use of shell companies in the EU.

In its Inception impact assessment, the European Commission indicates that the issue at stake is the use of legal entities with no or minimum substance and no real economic activities, by taxpayers operating cross-border to reduce their tax liability.

By way of background I have been working for Tier 1 firms for 20 years and have set up many tax structures. The basic idea of the European Commission that there are no substance requirements is untrue. It is rather correct that there each country has its own substance requirements. These requirements differ from country to country.

The fight against the use of convenience entities and mechanisms for tax purposes is important. However, the question of what needs to be discussed remains to be examined in greater depth. “Light structures”, a subject on which the necessary attention has never been paid in the past and which is a cause of ongoing controversy.

Filed in Italian · English published by the European Commission

Tax avoidance is the conduct put into practice by the taxpayer that engages in a legal transaction or a chain of legal acts which are lawful in themselves, with the sole aim of reducing the tax liability. With a few more precise examples of the situation in Italy For example, if the tax rates on the sale of immovable property are 35 % and the rate on the sale of shares is 20 %, the owner of the property can transfer…

Filed in Italian · English published by the European Commission

The main examples of tax evasion are Banks in several cases of joint payments of the institutions of the European Commission and the European Union European Central Bank in which when it comes to direct payment of banks steal money for example European Institutions pay through the European Central Bank money arrives in the main account keeps records on the client's account already sends the money abroad to the Group…