On 14 November, the Commissioners-designate Thierry Breton (France, Internal Market), Adina-Ioana Vălean (Romania, Transport) and Olivér Várhelyi (Hungary, Neighbourhood and Enlargement) held their hearing before the respective committees of the European Parliament. The MEPs gave green light to Ms Vălean and Mr Breton whilst they asked Olivér Várhelyi to answer additional written questions to clarify the possible influences of the Hungarian government in his function as Commissioner.
On the same date, the European Commission launched an infringement procedure against the United Kingdom for failing to nominate a Commissioner. The British Ambassador, Tim Barrow, informed the Commission that the British authorities would not appoint a Commissioner until a new British government was in place.
On 14 November, the European Parliament has adopted its opinion on a proposal for a proposal for amending the Directive 2006/112. Based on the adopted opinion drafted by Ondřej Kovařík (Renew, CZ), market platforms such as eBay and Amazon will be responsible for gathering data related to sales made by using their interfaces, in order to support the calculation of VAT by tax administrations. Some estimations highlight that the uncollected VAT revenue from e-commerce activities amounts to €5 billion per year within the EU. The council will now need to adopt the final position on this directive.
On 12 November, ETAF took part in the public consultation promoted by the OECD on the Secretariat Proposal for a Unified Approach under Pillar 1. In particular, ETAF recommended the OECD to ensure that the new proposed tax rules would not add complexity and bureaucracy for traditional companies which represent the core of the European business. Furthermore, ETAF made proposals to smoothen the calculation of profits and determination of Amount A while highlighting the need of further definitions on certain aspects of Amount B. The full text of the ETAF feedback to the OECD is available on our website.
Don’t miss out the opportunity to join the ETAF Conference on “Future dynamics of EU tax policy” on 5 December 2019 in Brussels. Take a look at our programme and send an email to [email protected] to register; there are still few seats available!
