Tackling the role of enablers involved in facilitating tax evasion and aggressive tax planning in the European Union

We are pleased to respond on behalf of the Deloitte1 firms in Europe to the European Commission Public Consultation on the step up of the fight against tax evasion and “aggressive tax planning” by addressing the role of what the Commission designates as “enablers” who create complex and non-transparent structures, and welcome the opportunity for debate on this topic.

The fight against tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning, by addressing the role of facilitators, must be based on collective action at multilateral level. The reference scenarios proposed in this case may be effective, but should not be imposed or put in place only at European level, but within a global framework, led by an international organisation, for example the OECD, to improve control of this practice.

Filed in French · English published by the European Commission

A large proportion of imports to Madagascar are channelled through front companies that are facilitators of fraud. The proliferation of this practice increases the risk of fraud. The majority of customs fraud concerns false declarations of value, which are by their very nature very complex and deserve to be well under control in order to properly recover the revenue shortfalls of the State.

Filed in French · English published by the European Commission

CFE Tax Advisers Europe has issued an Opinion Statement on the public consultation launched by the European Commission on 6 July 2022 on the policy options being considered ‘to improve a regulatory framework for tax intermediaries', through a legislative proposal to tackle the role of ‘Enablers’ that facilitate tax evasion and aggressive tax planning in the European Union (Securing the Activity Framework of Enablers…

The European Contact Group (ECG) which brings together the six large professional Services networks in Europe (BDO, Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, KPMG and PwC), welcomes the opportunity to respond to the EC Call for Evidence on Securìng the Activity Framework for Tax Enablers. Please see attached our letter.

We appreciate the opportunity to submit comments on behalf of EY on the European Commission’s public consultation on Securing the Activity Framework of Enablers (SAFE). In the attached document we provide our perspective on the issues underlying the questions posed in the questionnaire and the information contained in the “call for evidence”

The European Federation of Accountants and Auditors for SMEs, EFAA for SMEs, welcomes the efforts of the European Commission initiatives aiming to step up the fight against tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. While EFAA did not respond to the consultation questionnaire, attached is our position focusing on points of interest for small- and medium-sized accountancy practices: 1.

The Chamber of Tax Advisors and Accountants (KSW) is the legal representative of tax advisers in Austria. The CSW represents more than 10.000 members. Tax advice and representation is reserved for a few regulated professions in Austria; of these, with extensive authority and of practical importance, primarily tax advisors (and, to a limited extent, lawyers).

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

KPMG member firms in the EU are pleased to provide comments on the European Commission’s initiative for “Tackling the role of enablers involved in facilitating tax evasion and aggressive tax planning”. Given that the call for evidence and the public consultation were published simultaneously, our comments - set out in the attached letter, aim to address the issues noted in the inception impact assessment as well as…

As a statutory umbrella organisation, the Federal Chamber of Tax Consultants represents the whole of more than 100.000 tax advisers, tax representatives and tax-advising professional partnerships at national and international level throughout Germany. It coordinates the opinion-forming of the chambers of tax advisers and, on this basis, contributes to advising on tax laws and shaping professional law.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

The European Commission has recently published a “Call for evidence” to ensure the role and responsibility of “Enablers” or “facilitators” in structuring and creating evasive and aggressive tax schemes for their clients. The issue has long been discussed in the field of international taxation two to the relevance that certain Enablers had in the collaboration with taxpayers involved in evasive or aggressive schemes.

Filed in Italian · English published by the European Commission

Please find attached a joint letter from the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales setting out some further feedback on the UK experiences on measures to tackle aggressive tax planning which we trust the EU Commission will find helpful.

The Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer in Deutschland e.V. (IDW) advocates tax compliance. Tax compliance includes compliance with existing rules according to the wording, spirit and intention of the legislature. Accountants are an independent tax administration body in the role of advisor in tax matters and contribute to a constructive relationship between taxpayers and tax authorities.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

The European Tax Adviser Federation (ETAF) would like to thank the Commission for the opportunity to comment on its planned proposal for a Council Directive to tackle the role of enablers that facilitate tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. Please find attached our position paper. ETAF core messages are the following: 1. Before releasing new measures, existing regulation should be thoroughly evaluated first. 2.

The EU SAFE initiative aims to combat the role of ‘intermediators’ in designing, marketing or supporting tax evasion and aggressive tax planning, in particular by preventing ‘intermediators’ from setting up complex structures in third countries. Tax evasion, aggressive tax avoidance and money laundering remain serious problems for the Member States of the European Union.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

—Action against aggressive tax planning yes, but with caution; we do not need any further rules that make planning advice more complicated; our profession does not only live from declaratory activities — Please not create more bureaucracy; the profession is becoming even more unattractive

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

The role of operators (“facilitators”) in aggressive tax planning and/or in promoting tax evasion must be placed under the control of the EU in cooperation with EU nations. However, excessive red tape should be avoided as it would be detrimental to fair operators and free trade in goods and services. There is a need for a system of exchange of data on economic operators between the Member States and the EU.

Filed in Italian · English published by the European Commission

Is this really necessary and useful? In my view no. The reason that tax avoidance is used is that taxes are too high. No one does tax avoidance in countries where taxes are low. So the underlying question is - how can we reduce taxes to become more attractive? In Germany for instance 75% of the Grundsteuer is needed for its own administration. So the tax itself is badly construed as it is not really profitable.

The tax system of every EU member is defined by EU legal rules (EU Charter Treaty, EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, etc.) and local legislation. Every tax system follows (or should) the principle of fairness (1. equality before the law,2. ethics of the functioning of tax intermediaries and 3. zero tolerance to corruption).