https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Fiscalis-letter_final.pdf
Brussels, 9 September 2020
Dear MEPs from the MFF negotiating team, dear Colleagues,
We, the negotiating team for the FISCALIS programme, would like to bring your attention to the importance of this programme in helping the fight against tax fraud, tax evasion and tax avoidance and the importance then of maintaining its budget for the next Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) from 2021 to 2027.
FISCALIS may be a small programme in the entire MFF but it plays a crucial role for the European Union to fight tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. We welcome the European Parliament’s position to increase the programme by €61 million during the next term which is justified for several reasons, that were not known at the time of the Commission’s proposal (in May 2018).
Over the past two years, because of Brexit but especially because of the COVID-19 crisis, the debate on creating new own resources for the EU budget has been revigorated. The debate is still ongoing but one thing is already certain: for such own resources to materialise, there will be a need to work on a design phase for these resources (where Member States will have to cooperate with experts) and on an implementation phase (for the collection of these resources), including greater cooperation and exchange between tax authorities of the 27 Member States.
In addition, the European Commission published in July 2020 an action plan for fair taxation, which identifies new activities for tax authorities that were not budgeted at the time of the FISCALIS proposal. Among the new proposals, the Commission suggested an increased number of expert teams in taxation to improve cooperation between tax authorities and combat tax evasion. Support will also be needed to monitor new provisions on the fair taxation of the digital economy and on the upcoming obligation to report possession and/or transactions made by alternative means of payments and investments, such as crypto-assets. While the precise nature of the new obligations still remains to be agreed by the Council, it is very likely that additional budget will be needed. The availability of such additional budget will determine the ambitions of the Union to implement the action plan and demonstrate that it keeps the fight against tax evasion as a strong priority.
We therefore hope to count on your support to defend a strong FISCALIS budget line and advocate for its increase in the next MFF given the current circumstances.
Your sincerely,
Sven Giegold, FISCALIS Rapporteur, Greens/EFA
Eero Heinäluoma, shadow rapporteur, S&D
Georgios Kyrtsos, shadow rapporteur, EPP
Martin Schirdewan, shadow rapporteur, GUE
Monica Semedo, shadow rapporteur, RENEW