Business in Europe

made under the
stewardship of EU
commission president
when he was the prime
Photo: europarl.europa.eu
Gerhard Huemer of the European Craft and SME
different tax regimes made cross-border business
excessively difficult.
“While big business can profit from them for tax
planning, we have a high price for this,” he said.
Only Bulgaria, Greece, France, the Netherlands,
and the UK give SMEs tax breaks because of
their size.
tax advantages issued through tax rulings for Fiat
in Luxembourg and Starbucks in the Netherlands
were illegal under EU rules on state aid.
And in January, it proposed new measures to claw
corporate tax avoidance.
EUROPE’S HIDDEN CHAMPIONS
efforts to crack down on corporate tax given the
scale of the problem.
Huemer says a fairer system is needed and
backs EU commission efforts of harmonising the
tax base throughout the EU.
STIFF RESISTANCE FROM MEMBER
STATES
But member states are jealous guardians of their
tax systems. And reforms at the EU level are
likely to be met with stiff resistance from national
governments.
more difficult for the bookshops to sell their products.
Same with the Starbucks and the coffee
shop around the corner,” Huemer said.
talking to the multinationals,” he said.
He said Europe had “hidden champions” but are
unable to get the proper exposure.
“We have strong hidden champions in the digital
SME area but no-one is able to see it,” said Grun.
He said the EU had already lost out in the digital
revolution to the US, where giants like Facebook
and Google dominate.
He said the only chance the EU now has to
become a global leader is to shore up on business-to-business
software.
The EU commission says it wants to harmonise
the tax base with a re-launch of the Common
Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, also known as
the CCCTB.
Last October, it had also announced that selective
breaks, is that there is no single European law on
tax.
-
BUSINESS IN EUROPE JUNE 2016 — 05