Insurance Europe aisbl : EU-wide corporate tax base should be optional

In response to a European Commission consultation aimed at kick-starting negotiations on its proposals for a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB), Insurance Europe said that, while potentially beneficial, the CCCTB needs to be optional not mandatory. This would allow businesses to opt into it if they see benefit in doing so.

Insurance Europe encourages the Commission to implement rules that are consistent with the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as these are the best way to address international tax avoidance.

In the response, Insurance Europe stressed that sufficient time should be allowed to appropriately design the features of the various proposals that make up the CCCTB, to ensure that they are consistent with the main OECD BEPS recommendations.

Insurance Europe also emphasised the need for the introduction of a 'one-stop-shop', which will allow companies to have only one tax authority as a contact and to file a single tax return for the whole of their activity in the EU. This will considerably reduce administrative costs both for taxpayers and tax authorities.

To read the full response click here.