In his speech at the meeting of the Economic and Monetary Union Section (ECO) of the European Economic and Social Committee on Tuesday 23 January, Commissioner Kovacs outlined the European Commission taxation priorities for 2007. The following are some of the key areas:

• VAT Package
  Commission's aim is to prepare a comprehensive solution on the VAT package by June 2007.
• Direct Taxation – CCCTB
  It is the Commission's intention to publish a second “Communication on the CCCTB” during the first semester of 2007, under the German Presidency, outlining the Commission's thinking on the progress achieved and the work to be done. Commissioner Kovacs’ goal continues to be the presentation of a Community legislative proposal in 2008.
• Direct Taxation – Coordination
  The Commission plan a series of further initiatives similar to those issued in December 2006 (as advised in Section 1.33 of the January edition of tax.point) promoting coordination on a range of issues such as anti-abuse rules, withholding taxes on cross-border income, or inheritance taxes.
• Recast of the Capital Duty Directive
  The purpose of the proposal adopted by the Commission in early December 2006 is to simplify a complicated piece of Community legislation, to phase out capital duty and to reinforce the prohibition on the levying of similar taxes.

The Commission met the German Presidency on 9 January 2007 to discuss the priorities for the first half of 2007 – Commissioner Kovacs expects that progress will be made in the following areas: the VAT package, the tax coordination package and tax fraud.