Italian Presidency of Council of Ministers: A new brush sweeps clean?

09.07.2014

Today took place the first meeting of the Council of Ministers in the ECOFIN formation under the Presidency of Italy.

S. Kallas and A. Šemeta in their introducing speeches talked not only about hopes, which are entrusted into Italian Presidency, but also about Greek accomplishments. They especially stressed the adoption of the Parent Daughter Companies Directive.

Talking about expectations from Italy, both commissioners made remarks on possibility of negotiation of legislative initiative on the Single European Corporate Tax Base, which has been discussed for the three years now.

Italian Presidency Program has several direction, one of which, traditionally, is economy. Country is focused on the development and growth of economy in Europe up to the 2020, and also make an emphasis on the “industrial renaissance”, the possibility of which depends on the stable economic situation.

At the corner stone of the economic direction of the Program also is the decrease of the unemployment rate and improvement of the banking union. Italy will contribute to the successful implementation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism in November, 2014.

In the taxation field Italy will promote the fight against money laundering and tax evasion. In this framework the new Presidency plans to conclude the discussion over amendments to the Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation between Member States in the sphere of taxation. Italy also expects to organize the negotiations on Single European Corporate Tax Base, focusing mainly on the issues of cross-border taxation and questions regulated by Directive 2003/49/ЕС on interest rates and royalty.

Sources: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-533_en.htm?locale=en,

http://italia2014.eu/media/1227/programma-en1-def.pdf

Expert’s opinion

European Union negotiates Single European Corporate Tax Base almost too long now. But the idea is too controversial. Some European jurisdiction are alive only and because of their relatively low corporate tax rate, for example Cyprus (12,5%) or Bulgaria (10%). On the other hand, some countries live for their high tax rates. The question is what Base will be stated by the European legislation. Greece could not affect the decision on this question between Meber States in time of its Presidency, let’s see if it is possible to do for Italy.

Alexandra Mihno ( Lawyer, Honest&Bright)