【英语财经】欧洲打击跨国企业避税 Europe vows to close loopholes and level tax playing field

Europe has launched an assault on tax avoidance by multinational companies, pledging to close regulatory loopholes revealed by the “LuxLeaks” scandal and to give EU countries more powers to claw back profits that businesses seek to shift abroad.

The European Commission plans would curb business use of complex corporate structures to reduce their tax burdens. The plans, revealed by the Financial Times, also contain a provision for all countries to apply an “exit tax” on intellectual property assets, such as patents, that are moved to other jurisdictions.

The moves come against the backdrop of a public backlash in Europe over the tax affairs of big US technology groups including Apple and Google. US executives and politicians, in turn, have argued European authorities are discriminating against US multinationals.

But the initiative was criticised as insufficient by campaigners and some members of the European Parliament and is likely to face opposition from multinationals. BusinessEurope, a lobby group for EU companies, said the EU should not be a “lone frontrunner” in tackling tax avoidance or pursue measures that “undermine the competitiveness of EU industry”.

The European Network on Debt and Development described it as “woefully inadequate”, saying the plans would not tackle many of the practices exposed by LuxLeaks — the name given to revelations in 2014 that up to 340 multinational companies, ranging from Ikea to Pepsi, funnelled profits through Luxembourg to lower their tax bills in some instances to as little as 1 per cent. “The system needs real reform, not piecemeal solutions,” it said.

Brussels’ proposals are one of the biggest steps the EU has taken to tackle aggressive corporate tax avoidance, which the commission estimates costs EU governments as much as ￠70bn a year. They will now be discussed by member states in the Council of Ministers, becoming law only when unanimous agreement is reached — which has been a formidable barrier in the past.

But Pierre Moscovici, the EU tax commissioner, said the proposals meant “the days are numbered for companies that avoid paying tax at the expense of others”.

The push was a “major step towards creating a level playing field for all our businesses, for fair and effective taxation for all Europeans”, he said, and would address a status quo where small companies in Europe had an overall tax burden 30 per cent higher than that of multinationals.

American Innovation Matters, a coalition of US tech companies including Apple and Facebook, said the plans would be a potentially “significant and costly blow”. They were the latest “aggressive” move by Europe to tax more US earnings and “use them to pad the coffers of foreign governments” it said.

欧洲开始打击跨国企业避税行为，承诺填补“卢森堡税务泄密”(LuxLeaks)丑闻暴露的监管漏洞，赋予欧盟国家更多权力来追回企业试图转往国外的利润应缴的税款。

欧盟委员会(European Commission)的计划将遏止企业利用复杂的公司结构来减轻税务负担的行为。英国《金融时报》披露的该计划还将包含一项条款，让所有国家可以向转至其他司法管辖区的知识产权资产（如专利权）征收“离境税”。

此举的背景是，欧洲公众对苹果(Apple)、谷歌(Google)等美国大型科技集团的税务问题产生强烈不满。反过来，美国高管和政界人士则认为，欧洲当局是在歧视美国的跨国企业。

但是，一些活动人士和欧洲议会(European Parliament)的部分议员批评此计划分量不够，并且很可能会遭到跨国企业的反对。欧盟企业的游说团体商业欧洲(BusinessEurope)称，欧盟不应“孤军奋战”地解决避税问题或采取“破坏欧盟产业竞争力”的措施。

欧洲债务和发展网络(European Network on Debt and Development)形容该计划“远远不够”，称之无法应对“卢森堡税务泄密”事件中暴露的很多做法。2014年，多达340家跨国企业（从宜家(Ikea)到百事可乐(Pepsi)）被曝通过卢森堡转移利润以减少纳税额，在部分案例中税率低至1%，该事件被称为“卢森堡税务泄密”。“该体系需要真正的改革，而不是零敲碎打式的解决方案，”该组织称。

布鲁塞尔的提案是欧盟为应对企业大肆避税而采取的最重大举措之一。欧盟委员会估计企业避税造成欧盟各国政府每年损失700亿欧元的税收。如今，该提案将在欧盟部长理事会(Council of Ministers)接受各成员国的讨论，只有当各国达成一致同意（在过去这一直是一个可怕的障碍）后才会成为法律。

但是，欧盟税务专员皮埃尔?莫斯科维奇（Pierre Moscovici，见文首图）称，该提案意味着“企业损人利己的避税行为剩下的日子屈指可数了”。

他称，此举是“为我们所有企业打造一个公平竞争环境、为所有欧洲人建立公平有效税收体制的重大举措”，将解决欧洲小型企业总体税务负担比跨国企业高30%的现状。

包括苹果、Facebook等公司在内的美国科技企业联盟American Innovation Matters称，该计划可能造成重大打击并带来巨大成本。该组织称，这是欧洲的最新“进攻”举动，目的是向更多的美国企业利润征税，并“借此填充国库”。

译者/马柯斯