On 8 June, the European Commission has proposed a new measure to enhance the tax and customs cooperation between the Member States with a financial commitment of €950 million for the customs programme and €270 million for the Fiscalis programme. In particular, the Fiscalis programme should support the cooperation between Member States’ tax authorities by putting in place more connected IT systems, sharing best practices and promoting joint actions in risk management and audits.
The Communique released after the G7 meeting held in Canada on 9 June highlights the international efforts to be undertaken to ensure a fair, progressive, effective and efficient tax system. Furthermore, the Communique stated that “the impacts of the digitalization of the economy on the international tax system remain key outstanding issues” and that the G7 leaders welcome the OECD interim report (on the impact of digitalization on the international tax system) and are committed to work together to seek a consensus-based solution by 2025.
On 13 June, the European Commission has published the 2018 report on Taxation Trends in the European Union. The report offers a breakdown of comparative tax levels in the EU and of tax revenues raised from consumption, labour and capital in the 28 Member States plus Iceland and Norway. It also contains data on energy, environmental and property taxation, plus rates for personal and corporate income taxes. The data of 2016 show that EU-28 taxes and compulsory actual social contributions accounted for 38.9% of GDP. Compared to other advanced economies, the EU tax level is high. Overall labour taxes provide the largest share of revenues (49.8 % in 2016) followed by consumption taxes (28.5 %) and then capital taxes (21.7%). The share of labour taxes in total tax revenues shrank progressively from 2010 (51,2%) to 2016 (49.8%) - similar to its pre-crisis level. Corporate income tax revenues, on the other hand rose to 2.7% of GDP in 2016 compared with 2.4% in 2010, continuing their gentle increase since the crisis though not yet at pre-crisis levels.
