Translation of "préparateur de déclarations fiscales " (French → English) :

Does Article 5 of Directive 2005/36/EC (1) preclude a restriction of the freedom to provide services in a case where a tax consultancy company formed in accordance with the law of a Member State prepares in the Member State of its establishment, where tax consultancy work is not regulated, a tax return for a recipient of services in another Member State and sends it to the tax authority, and national provisions in that other Member State require that a tax consultancy company be recognised as authorised to provide professional assistance in tax matters and that the tax advisers managing the company must act autonomously?

While we are on the subject of tax fairness, Bill C-4 also proposes to further enhance the integrity of the scientific research and experimental development tax incentive program, also knows as SR and ED. Today's legislation would introduce a penalty of $1,000 in respect of each SR and ED program claim for which the information about SR and ED tax preparers and billing arrangements are missing, incomplete or inaccurate.

In addition, in the case where a third-party SR and ED tax preparer had been engaged, the SR and ED program claimant and the tax preparer would be jointly and severally liable for the penalty.

Evasion of the payment of taxes and social security premiums includes the submission of figures to tax or social security authorities which contain omissions or are falsified and includes the non-submission of compulsory tax or social security returns, for example on the part of clandestine production units.

1. For the purposes of applying Article 2 (1) to transactions carried out by taxable persons whose annual turnover exceeds ECU 10 000 but who are exempted under Article 24 (2) of Directive 77/388/EEC and to the cases referred to in paragraph 2, Member States shall determine the VAT resources base from the returns to be made by taxable persons in accordance with Article 22 of that Directive or, where there is not return or the return does not contain the necessary information, from appropriate data such as other tax returns, professional accounts or complete statistical series.

This could force individuals to prepare their own often very complex tax returns or open the door even further to non-professional, or sometimes less than scrupulous, tax preparers.