Translation of "tax ruling " (English → French) :

Finally, the Commission's decision that Belgium's "excess profit" ruling system was contrary to EU state aid rules was also based on derogations from the "arm's length principle". Profit allocation methods, which do not reflect economic reality: The Commission decided in August 2016 that Apple received illegal tax benefits in Ireland because the tax rulings endorsed a method to internally allocate profits within two Irish Apple group companies, which did not have any factual or economic justification. Inconsistent application of national law, giving rise to a discretionary double non-taxation: Today's investigation into Luxembourg's tax ...[+++]treatment of GDF Suez looks into an alleged inconsistent application of national tax law endorsed in the tax rulings, leading to double non-taxation.

whereas, despite the Council's recent agreement on amending Council Directive 2011/16/EU as regards the automatic exchange of tax rulings, there are still risks that Member States do not communicate sufficiently between themselves about the possible impact that their tax arrangements with certain companies might have on tax collection in other Member States; whereas national tax authorities should automatically exchange all tax rulings without delay after they have been issued; whereas the Commission should have access to tax rulings, through a secure central directory; whereas tax rulings signed up to by tax authorities should be sub ...[+++]ject to greater transparency, providing that confidential information and business sensitive information is preserved;

X. whereas the practice of rulings developed, in the framework of a closer and more cooperative relationship between tax administrations and taxpayers, as a tool to tackle the increasing complexity of the tax treatment of certain transactions in an increasingly complex, global and digitalised economy; whereas – despite Member States’ asserting that rulings are not discretionary, but merely a tool to clarify existing tax legislation, while keeping them secret – its special committee’s work has confirmed that tax rulings can be issued without any legal framework through informal or discretionary arrangements, that support tax-driven stru ...[+++]ctures which rely on tax planning tools typically used by MNCs to reduce their tax contribution; whereas this seems to be an issue particularly – although not exclusively – with rulings related to pricing of intra-company transfers (so-called Advance Pricing Agreements); whereas, in providing legal certainty only to some selected actors, they might create inequality between companies to which they have been granted and companies in the same sector which have no access to them;

33. Stresses the crucial role of large accounting firms, including the ‘Big Four’, in the design and marketing of rulings and tax avoidance schemes that exploit mismatches between national legislations; stresses that those firms, which seem to derive a considerable amount of their revenue from tax services, to dominate most Member States’ auditing markets and to prevail in global tax advising services, constitute a narrow oligopoly; considers that such a situation cannot continue without damaging the functioning of the single market in the fields of activity of the ‘Big Four’; draws attention to the conflict of interest resulting from the juxtaposition, within the same firms, of tax advice and consulting activities intended, on the one h ...[+++]and, for tax administrations and, on the other, for MNCs’ tax planning services, which exploit the weaknesses of national tax laws; takes the view that good practices in this respect must be promoted and that existing codes of conduct should be improved; questions, nevertheless, the effectiveness of corporate codes of conduct and corporate social responsibility policies in tackling this issue; underlines the fact that tax rulings have become, in the EU and worldwide, a common business practice, not only in order to obtain legal certainty or advantageous tax deals, but also in cases where legislative provisions do not allow any room for interpretation; is concerned by estimations from the tax advice industry that a mere 50 % chance of being lawful is sufficient for a tax planning scheme to be recommended to clients ;

Z. whereas advanced tax rulings are not supposed to affect in any way the tax treatment of any transaction, nor benefit one taxpayer over another, but rather should have, everything being equal, the same effect as the ex post application of the underlying tax provisions; whereas, accordingly, the focus of this report is not strictly limited to tax rulings but includes, in line with the mandate given to its special committee (TAXE), any tax measure similar in nature or in effect, under the generic term of ‘harmful tax practices’, i.e. measures aimed at attracting non-resident firms or transactions at the expense of other tax jurisdictio ...[+++]ns in which these transactions should normally be taxed and/or measures aimed at privileging only some companies, thus distorting competition;

X. whereas the practice of rulings developed, in the framework of a closer and more cooperative relationship between tax administrations and taxpayers, as a tool to tackle the increasing complexity of the tax treatment of certain transactions in an increasingly complex, global and digitalised economy; whereas – despite Member States’ asserting that rulings are not discretionary, but merely a tool to clarify existing tax legislation, while keeping them secret – its special committee’s work has confirmed that tax rulings can be issued without any legal framework through informal or discretionary arrangements, that support tax-driven stru ...[+++]ctures which rely on tax planning tools typically used by MNCs to reduce their tax contribution; whereas this seems to be an issue particularly – although not exclusively – with rulings related to pricing of intra-company transfers (so-called Advance Pricing Agreements); whereas, in providing legal certainty only to some selected actors, they might create inequality between companies to which they have been granted and companies in the same sector which have no access to them;