Yet another EU initiative

The expatriate’s tax nightmare

I thought I had a dream last night

Red snakes and other beasts;

Blood red coils cut short the light

And I’m to be their feast.

And then I woke and then I saw

The ‘snakes’ were really red tape;

For tax compliance is more and more

And nightmares are my fate.

Taxation: Reinforcing the Single Market for citizens

O goody! On 10 April, with encouraging words from Algirdas Šemeta, Commissioner for Taxation, the European Commission launched not one but two public consultations and plans to create an expert group to gather ideas on how to tackle any tax obstacles that hinder the cross-border activity of individuals in the Single Market. At the same time, the Commission has launched new web pages aimed at providing useful tax information to individuals who are active across borders. There is no doubt that the issue is critically important as around 14.1 million EU citizens reside in an EU Member State other than their own and almost 30% of EU citizens purchase offline and online goods from businesses based in other Member States. The Commission optimistically states:-

As work is progressing on combating cross-border tax evasion via closer cooperation between tax administrations, there must now be a corresponding effort to combat cross-border double taxation and compliance burdens.”

Any initiative to reduce cross border red tape must be welcomed, but it is perhaps unlikely that there is going to be any real difference to persons and companies exercising cross-border activities within the EU, given the complex administrative procedures involved, language barriers, different interpretations of tax treaties by the EU countries and different approaches and practices of the revenue authorities taxing the cross border activities concerned. However, the measured language of the Commission is at least a welcome antidote to the rhetoric of the press and politicians here in the UK with the current obsession with tax avoidance and evasion (the terms are used interchangeably alas!). Let us hope that something good comes out of it all.

Levy & Levy – the tax investigations and resolution specialists in London and Tunbridge Wells