Ecofin discusses common tax base, EU's investment

The fight against tax evasion and strengthening the EU's investment activities were high on the agenda on the second day of the informal meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) in Bratislava on Saturday.

Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir stressed the importance of strict and transparent tax rules that would limit a scope for tax evasions and, on the other hand, give tax certainty to firms.

"We did not touch the issue of tax harmonization. However, the European Commission's plan includes the issue of a common tax base. It bears some features of harmonization, but in a sense that no EU member state can mind. It is aimed at reducing cost of tax consulting and giving even higher rate of certainty to all those who create jobs and participate in GDP creation," said Kazimir on Saturday.

According to Kazimir, bigger tax certainty is a relatively new but important issue that might strengthen the EU's global competitiveness.

"It is of the highest importance to make the tax system trustworthy and predictable and to eliminate uncertainty and a risk of double or no taxation in this way," said Kazimir.

In order to limit financing of terrorism and money laundering, Kazimir stressed a need to intensify cooperation of institutions at the domestic level, but also to improve international exchange of information and make it faster and more efficient.

"We need to introduce rules for mandatory disclosure of information concerning mediators, such as consultants, banks and others who profit from designing or conducting tax evasions and aggressive tax schemes," added Kazimir. Endit