Kovacs presses on with EU tax base
Controversial plan to harmonise tax base will continue, commissioner confirms
EU tax commissioner Laslo Kovacs is pushing ahead with plans for a common EU
tax base.
Announcing technical progress on the project, Kovacs said yesterday: ‘The
harmonisation would only cover the tax base, not the setting of rates. That
would remain the competence of member states.’
Even so, many countries are likely to resist the move, since the setting of
the tax base is almost as useful a tool in raising cash as the setting of rates
themselves.
Kovacs hopes to get special rules through allowing countries who wish to
implement the rules to do so, if, as expected, unanimous support is not
forthcoming.