On the 16th November 2012, the European Commission announced its intention to adopt a comprehensive package to strengthen the fight against tax evasion and aggressive tax planning in the European Union. The Commission will present an action plan on 5 December 2012 and will propose that the Member States deal with aggressive tax planning to reduce the high levels of lost revenue for the EU member states.
The Commission stressed the need to ensure proper use of existing legislative instruments to improve administrative cooperation between tax authorities which provides for automatic information exchange. It also urged Member States to agree on the revision of the Savings Taxation Directive and the anti-fraud agreement, and to adopt proposals to reduce the scope of VAT fraud.
To further strengthen the EU code of conduct on business taxation, the Commission will present two new instruments to improve administrative cooperation in the area of direct taxation: the European Taxpayer Identification Number portal and a regulation establishing standard forms for information exchange.
