EU Tax Symposium 2023

Parallel session 1: VAT in a digital world (Download the Meeting Minutes)

Speakers

• Ferenc VAGUJHELYI (Commissioner, National Tax and Customs Administration, Hungary)
• Ondrej KOVARIK (Member of the European Parliament & ECON Committee)
• Helena ALVES BORGES (Director-General, Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority)
• Sophie CLAESSENS (Director Amazon Public Policy EU - Leading Amazon’s Fiscal and Customs policy engagement in Brussels and across EU)
• Stefanie BECKER (Tax Adviser, European Tax Adviser Federation (ETAF))

Moderated by Mario Nava (Director General DG for Structural Reform Support, European Commission)

VAT is an essential source of revenue for the Member States and the EU, amounting to about 20% of national revenues and having the least distortionary effects. Businesses who want to take advantage of the Single Market, especially SMEs, currently face up to 27 national VAT systems, each with separate reporting obligations. Such fragmentation can incur administrative burden and financial costs. In addition, consecutive updates to the VAT legislation have made the legal framework increasingly complex, leading to uncertainty and leaving the door open for fraud. New digital technologies, big data analysis or artificial intelligence may help solve some of the issues.

This session will therefore look into how the current ‘transitional’ VAT system can be adapted to the digitised economy, with real time flow of information and exchange and fast-paced development. It will also delve into how evolving technologies could be used, as well as best practices in implementation.

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Parallel session 2: The role of behavioural taxation (Download the Meeting Minutes)

Speakers

• Mohammed CHAHIM (Member of the European Parliament & Vice-President of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament)
• Niall CODY (Commissioner, Revenue, Irish Tax and Customs Administration)
• Manal CORWIN (Director of Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD)
• David SURY (Director-General for Environmental Protection, Ministry of Environment, Czechia)
• Erich KIRCHLER (Psychologist and Professor of Economic Psychology at the University of Vienna and Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna)

Moderated by Elisabeth Werner (Deputy Director General DG Secretariat-General , European Commission)

What is the economic rationale behind behavioural taxation? How should a tax be designed to internalise the cost of negative externalities and influence behaviour? What is the place of behavioural taxes in the future tax mix?

This panel will try to answer these questions, analysing the role behavioural taxes should play in the policy mix and the way they interact with regulatory measures addressing the supply and demand of the same goods towards healthier and more sustainable consumer choices.

Parallel session 3: Balancing incentives and redistribution: The future of Personal Income Taxation (PIT) (Download the Meeting Minutes)

Speakers

• Markus FERBER (Member of the European Parliament & Vice-Chair of the FISC committee)
• Jyrki KATAINEN (Head of Group Public Affairs, Nordea Bank Abp & Former Vice President of the European Commission)
• Cécile BROKELIND (Chairwoman of the European Association of Tax Law Professors (EATLP))
• Ana Paula DOURADO (Editor in chief of Intertax, Director of European Economics and Fiscal Law Research Centre (CIDEEFF))
• Camille LANDAIS (Professor of Economics, London School of Economics) 

Moderated by Joost Korte (Director General DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, European Commission)

Personal income taxation is a key tool to shape labour market outcomes and promote redistribution. Ongoing societal structural changes are prompting a major reflection on the taxation of labour income and other forms of personal income. In particular, population ageing,  as well as increasing labour and capital mobility associated with digitalisation and globalisation, can pose several challenges to tax revenues and the progressivity function of tax systems.

With these in mind, the panel will assess ways in which the design of the tax system can be improved to increase labour market participation – in particular of second earners (often women), individuals with lower qualifications and disadvantaged groups, as well as ensure the sustainability of our welfare systems. It will also discuss capital taxation, the future role of social security contributions in our tax benefit systems, and the impact of taxation on the mobility of capital and workers.

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Parallel session 4: The role of wealth taxation in the tax mix of tomorrow (Download the Meeting Minutes)

Speakers

• Aurore LALUCQ (Member of the European Parliament & S&D Coordinator of the Subcommittee on Tax Matters)
• Jeromin ZETTELMEYER (Director, Bruegel)
• Gabriel ZUCMAN (Associate Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley; Director, European Tax Observatory)
• Helen MILLER (Deputy Director of the IFS)
• Cristina ENACHE (Global Tax Economist, Tax Foundation)

Moderated by Antonio de Lecea (Affiliated Professor, IBEI Barcelona Institute for international Studies)

The Eurobarometer survey on fairness and inequality found that 80% of European citizens believe income inequality was too high, while two thirds think that taxation has a role in redressing this. At the same time, net wealth inequality in the EU is high and increasing, with the wealthiest 1% of the population holding a quarter of all wealth, while half of the EU population shares 3% of it.

This panel will therefore delve into discussions the potential role of wealth taxation in helping to address wealth disparities, and other megatrends such as climate change, as well as its design, its advantages and its difficulties. 

• Valdis DOMBROVSKIS (Executive Vice-President, European Commission)

• Paolo GENTILONI (European Commissioner for Economy)

• Nadia CALVINO (First Deputy Prime Minister of Spain and Minister for Economy and Digitalization)

(Download the Meeting Minutes)

Speakers

• Jesús GASCÓN CATALÁN (State Secretary for Finance, Spain (EU Presidency))
• Maurizio LEO (Deputy Minister of Finance, Italy)
• Marie-Christine MARGHEM (Chair of the Finance Committee, Belgium)
• Fredrik PERSSON (President BusinessEurope)
• Esther LYNCH (General Secretary, ETUC)

Moderated by Gerassimos Thomas (Director General DG Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission)

The EU’s demography is changing: the population is ageing and the relative working force shrinking. In a continent with unique and highly developed welfare systems whose financing is largely based on labour taxation and social contribution, this situation means our tax systems will need to be adjusted to keep up. In parallel, major trends such as the twin digital and green transitions ask for additional investment, and thus resources. Therefore, meeting the challenges of tomorrow requires action today. This panel will explore how to adapt our tax mix to new demographic realities and render it future proof in the face of other structural challenges.

• Mathias CORMANN (Secretary-General, OECD)

(Download the Meeting Minutes)

Speakers

• Evelyn REGNER (Vice-President of the European Parliament, Member of the FISC Subcommittee)
• Eric COQUEREL (Chair of the Finance Committee in Assemblée Nationale, France)
• Tina HUMAR (Director General for Taxation, Slovenia)
• Vitor GASPAR (Head of Fiscal Affairs, IMF)
• Jayati GHOSH (Chairwoman, ICRICT)

Moderated by Daniel Calleja (Director-General, Legal Service, European Commission)

In recent years, various global initiatives, such as the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) and BEPS 2.0 agreements by the OECD and its Inclusive Framework (IF), have successfully addressed shortcomings in the international tax system. Simultaneously, the EU adopted numerous anti-tax avoidance legislations, such as ATAD, DAC and the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.

Despite major successes, decision-making on taxation has also attracted criticism. The way in which decision-making on taxation has developed at the EU or International level has given parliaments limited oversight on tax decisions. In addition, despite the involvement of developing countries in the IF, concerns over their ability to influence the decision-making of such fora have led to calls for the creation of a UN tax convention.

This panel will discuss the role of the United Nations, the OECD, the EU, the EU Member States and their parliaments in the international tax policy setting and how these different governance levels can better work together to address emerging challenges to our tax systems.

• Kristalina GEORGIEVA (Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund)

(Download the Meeting Minutes)

Speakers

• Isabel BENJUMEA (Member of the European Parliament, ECON & FISC Committees)
• Maria-Gabriela HORGA (Vice-Chair of the Committee for Budget, Finance and Banks in Romania)
• Fabrizia LAPECORELLA (Deputy Secretary-General, OECD)
• Karel LANNOO (CEO, CEPS)
• Georg GEBERTH (Vice-Chair of the BusinessEurope Tax Policy Working Group)

Moderated by Pascal Saint-Amans (Non-Resident Fellow Bruegel, Partner at Brunswick)

The historic OECD agreement will massively reform international corporate taxation. Pillar 2 will ensure that multinational groups pay a minimum effective tax rate of 15% in all places where they are active, while Pillar 1 will reallocate part of taxing rights on the profits of large MNEs to market jurisdictions. 

However, there is still work to be done. Opportunities for tax evasion and avoidance remain, and challenges specific to the EU still need to be addressed. This panel will look into ways to reduce the compliance burden for companies operating cross-border and to address tax evasion and avoidance issues while maintaining national autonomy over tax systems.

Speakers

• Tove RYDING (Policy and Advocacy Manager, The European Network on Debt and Development(Eurodad))
• Nadine RIEDEL (Professor, University of Münster)

(Download the Meeting Minutes)

Speakers

• Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN (Member of the European Parliament, ECON & FISC Committees, Vice-chair of the FISC Subcommittee)
• Gilles BOYER (Member of the European Parliament, ECON & FISC Committees)
• Ben BUTTERS (CEO, Eurochambres)
• Daniel BUNN (President and CEO, Tax Foundation)
• Chiara PUTATURO (EU Inequality and Tax Policy Advisor, Oxfam EU)

Moderated by Kerstin Jorna (Director General DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission)

Taxation is often a trade-off between promoting competitiveness and promoting fairness. On the one hand, taxes raise government revenues, which are used to fund public services and infrastructure and have a redistributive function. On the other hand, taxation may have distortive effects, and thus negatively affect domestic and foreign investment, innovation, and productivity.

In light of this trade-off, the panel will examine whether promoting European growth requires a reorientation towards competitiveness, even if that comes at the expense of fairness and the living standards of some. It will also tackle questions on how tax reforms can improve the EU’s competitiveness, as well as in what ways tax policy in Europe can, or should, be made fairer. Moreover, panellists will discuss how environmental taxes affect fairness and the EU’s competitiveness.

• Paul TANG (Member of the European Parliament & Chair of the FISC Subcommittee)
• Gerassimos THOMAS (Director General DG Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission)