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EU: CCCTB Conference

A conference on CCCTB, held by the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law in association with the European Commission, took place Friday 22 February and Saturday 23 February in Vienna. An ICAI representative attended the conference and a report on the conference is included below.

The conference dealt with the EU CCCTB Working Group papers on:

  • Possible elements of a technical outline (WP057);
  • Possible elements of the administrative framework (WP061).

There were 41 papers prepared by European Tax Professors and Commission personnel.

Eight sessions were held over the two day period:

  1. Basic Issues;
  2. Forming a Group;
  3. Tax Base - Part 1;
  4. IV Tax Base - Part 2;
  5. Consolidation
  6. Financial Institutions;
  7. International Issues;
  8. Administrative Issues.

Overall, the conference involved academic discussion on the draft working papers. While there was disagreement on certain aspects at an academic level, no major issues/problems were identified during the conference.

The level of detail required in a Directive was discussed, with one speaker suggesting that it was not necessary to include too much detail but rather to await ECJ decisions which would provide interpretation. (This would occur in about five years, which was not deemed to be a problem). Indeed, one of the representatives from the Commission was concerned that the inclusion of detail may allow those Member States who were against the CCCTB to delay the process.

There was one speaker (from Belgium) who was “CCCTB sceptical”. The scepticism had arisen from the Commission's record (or perhaps lack thereof) in the accounting framework area.

A suggested timeframe of September 2008 was mentioned for the delivery of the CCCTB proposal.

The CCCTB Working Group are continuing to work on certain aspects of the proposals, in particular in relation to financial institutions. It is unclear whether the CCCTB will apply to financial services or whether specific rules will be required. As a result of this, it is quite possible that financial institutions may not be included in the September proposal. One final meeting of the Working Group and Member State experts is expected to be held in April.