Brussels flags common corporate tax

An article in the FT says the EU’s tax commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said he would introduce legislation if necessary to improve tax co-ordination between the the EU’s 25 member states.

Mr Kovacs also set out papers on co-ordinating exit taxes for people who move to another member state. At present their assets are sometimes taxed twice.

Further papers on inheritance tax, withholding taxes and anti-avoidance rules are planned.

Mr Kovacs intended to publish legislation to create a common corporate tax base in 2008, and said the initiative had backing from a large number of member states.

Countries including Britain, Ireland and Slovakia are strongly opposed, but Mr Kovacs said he could go ahead anyway under the little-used “enhanced co-operation” rule, which allows groups of EU countries to pioneer projects.

Direct Taxation: The European Commission proposes an EU co-ordinated approach of national direct tax systems

(see MEMO/06/499)

The European Commission has adopted a Communication announcing a series of initiatives to promote better co-ordination of national direct tax systems in the EU. The aim is to ensure that national tax systems comply with Community law and interact coherently with each other. The initiatives seek to remove discrimination and double taxation for the benefit of individuals and business while preventing tax abuse and erosion of the tax base.

"Discrimination and double taxation prevent individuals or business from reaping the full benefits of the Internal Market and undermine the EU’s competitiveness. There is an urgent need to improve coordination of national tax rules to allow them to interact more coherently" said László Kovács, the Commissioner responsible for Taxation and Customs Union. "Moreover, I am convinced that coordination would help Member States to prevent unintended non-taxation or abuse and hence avoid undue erosion of their tax bases"

The main objectives of a coherent and coordinated tax approach are to:

• Remove discrimination and double taxation,
• Prevent unintended non-taxation and abuse, and
• Reduce the compliance costs associated with being subject to more than one tax system.

Linked to this Communication, the Commission is presenting two Communications on cross-border loss relief (IP/061828/) and exit taxation (IP/06/1829), which provide the first two examples of specific areas which could benefit from a coordinated approach.

ECJ rules that UK can’t tax dividends on foreign subsidiaries of British firms – will cost Treasury up to £9billion

The European Court of Justice yesterday ruled that the British Government will have to pay back up to £9 billion to companies with subsidiaries in other EU states whose dividends were taxed under advanced corporation tax (ACT) rules, which were repealed under Gordon Brown. British American Tobacco originally launched the case, but several other multinational companies are now involved.

Alice Thomson in the Telegraph writes about the public funding of political parties and mentions perhaps one of the reasons that both Labour and the Conservative leaders are keen on the issue of public funding.  That of falling membership of the main parties “Instead of playing endless games of tennis with Lord Levy, Mr Blair should have spent more time working on his party’s declining membership. Not only do members pound the streets, but they give their £10 without mentioning a CBE.”

Technorati Tags: Tax, public funding of political parties, membership of political parties

There’s a story going round that taxpayers already fund political parties through “Short money”, so state funding of political parties would be nothing new. (Another case of the false “we already do X, so we might as well go on and do Y” argument.)

But Short money was only intended to assist MPs outside the governing party in carrying out an officially recognised function - providing an effective parliamentary opposition. It should not be used for extra-parliamentary purposes, such as running a party organisation or political campaigning.

If it is being used in that way, that is an abuse which can and should be stopped. Just as government ministers should not have been allowed to use public resources for the so-called “Big Conversation”, which was not an official government consultation but was only intended to help the Labour Party refine its election manifesto. Notably the Tories had nothing to say about that.

This has come up recently with respect to the government’s rotten idea of providing Short money to Sinn Fein MPs who refuse to take the oath of allegiance and therefore cannot take their seats:

link

Hoon: “Crucially, certain activities will specifically not attract financial assistance. Those include political campaigning and fundraising, membership campaigns, advertising, personal or private business and constituency business.”

Field: “Short money is specifically paid to support functions carried out in the Chamber by members of parties when representing major policies.”

Opik: “This is a key point, because we need clarity. We understand that Short money relates to activities conducted within the House.

May: “Short money is not available to Members who have not sworn the oath because it is designed to offer assistance with parliamentary duties, specifically to assist an Opposition party in carrying out its parliamentary business”.from Dennis Cooper

Technorati Tags: state funding of political parties, short money, Sinn Fein MPs

Lesley and John Kelly have been withholding a portion of their council tax for the last 3 years, because they object to their money being spent on supporting the unelected South West Regional Assembly.

John Kelly says: “Councils neither ask nor inform voters of what they are doing, and this council has never even entertained a motion at full council level to support funding for the South West Regional Assembly- it’s the Executives that are driving the project with most councillors ill-informed as to what is happening.”

Case was heard at Honiton Magistrates Court, in Devon, after only a short retirement to consider a very detailed submission in law ( less than 10 minutes), the magistrates swept aside the submission, declared that the court was correctly constituted and granted the Council it’s Liability Order.

There then followed an outrageous statement by the Court, when the Kellys were then told that they could appeal to the High Court and if they didn’t like the judgement they could,“Vote with their feet and get out of the country!”

Read the full story here

There are now numerous ways in which information and entertainment of the type the BBC provides can be obtained: terrestrial broadcast, satellite transmission, internet and mobile phone transmission. There are also many providers of services through these channels. In the coming years more will emerge.

To expect the BBC to be able to exist in its present form for another 10 years is unrealistic. Soon the huge range of material available from other sources will make the licence fee uncollectable. People will refuse to pay a poll tax like this and the methods of scrutiny necessary to enforce it will become intolerable.

In future the BBC should be funded by voluntary donations. The resulting organisation would be very different from the one it is today. But if it really is as popular as it claims to be, such finance should make it viable and able to provide a worthwhile and valued service.

Christopher Rose, Grangetown, Sunderland

“View Article We control tax and social security
by Eurealist on April 12, 2005 05:38PM (BST)
In other words the advocate General has said that Companies whose subsidiaries make a loss overseas, can put that loss against their profits in the this country, this will of course reduce their overall tax. The problem is that companies, whose subsidiaries make a profit overseas, cannot be taxed by the UK Treasury so, this one sided opinion would mean a constant flow away from the treasury.

From Neil Herron How Our Money was Spent

Hull and East Riding

09:30 - 01 January 2005

The University of Salford evaluation of the “operation and effectiveness of elected regional assemblies” - £979,274

Review of studies promoting regional growth - £255,320

Evaluation of the Role and Impact of Regional Chambers - £216,129

Identifying the flow of expenditure into regions - £176,520

British Social Attitudes Survey Module on Regional Governance - £16,800

Can Competitive Regions Promote Sustainability research - £17,300

Reflecting Diversity in Governing the Regions - £16,200

Research on cost of government reorganisation £127,590