TaxSource Total

Here you can access summary of the key current tax developments in Ireland, the UK and internationally as reported by Chartered Accountants Ireland

The report of key tax developments are displayed per year, per month, by Ireland, the UK or International and by report title

Direct Taxes-New Proposals on EU Co-ordinated Approach

The European Commission has announced a number of proposals in the area of direct taxation which will involve an EU co-ordinated approach to national direct tax systems.

The European Commission has adopted a Communication announcing a series of initiatives to promote better co-ordination of national direct tax systems in the EU.

According to the Commission's press release, the aim is to ensure that national tax systems comply with Community law and interact coherently with each other. In addition, it says that the initiatives seek to remove discrimination and double taxation for the benefit of individuals and business while preventing tax abuse and erosion of the tax base. Further information is available at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1827&format=HTML&aged= 0&language=en&guiLanguage=en.

As part of this EU-coordinated approach in direct taxation, the Commission proposes an EU co-ordinated approach on relief for losses incurred in other Member States (cross-border loss relief)
(see http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1828&format=HTML&aged=0&language=en&gui Language=en) and an EU-coordinated approach on exit taxation (see http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1829&format=HTML&aged=0&language=en&guiLanguage=en).

The Commission has announced its intention to present a comprehensive legislative proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) in 2008. According to the Commission, the above proposals are being considered separately to CCCTB to meet a more general need to ensure better co-ordination for the benefit of individual and corporate taxpayers and to prevent erosion of Member States’ tax bases through mismatches and abuse. In addition, they say that the initiative does not aim to replace existing national tax systems by a uniform Community system.

As a member of FEE (Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens, the European Federation of Accountants), ICAI will continue to make representations on behalf of our members in the area of Direct Taxation.