Taxation

Companies generate growth, create jobs and foster prosperity for citizens. Paying taxes is only a fraction of their contribution to society and corporation tax is just a small part of the overall tax paid by businesses.

BusinessEurope supports a global adoption of the OECD/G20’s Two-Pillar Framework. It is critical that governments and businesses work together to ensure that these new tax rules on corporations are clear, transparent, objective and predictable. As the global tax landscape continues to evolve rapidly, it is key to ensure that the architecture of international taxation is improved to promote open markets and investment across borders.  

BusinessEurope and its members are actively engaging at the EU level through the Platform for Tax Good Governance and the VAT Expert Group. At the international level we are actively engaged in the OECD/G20 work on the Two-Pillar Framework.

Facts and figures

  • The majority of our member federations consider that compared to our global competitors, the EU investment environment is less attractive than 3 years ago due to the increase in wholesale gas prices, the burdensome regulatory environment and high taxes.
  • The competitiveness of tax regimes in the EU lags behind other regions. The average tax wedge on labour costs is about 30% higher in the EU than in the USA.
  • Foreign direct investment inflows to the EU has fallen by 68% in 2021 compared to 2019 (pre-Covid) whilst the USA saw a corresponding increase during the same period of 63%.

Source: BusinessEurope Reform Barometer

Publications

Public letters Date
Proposed revisions to the Energy Taxation Directive - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Vincent Van Peteghem 28/02/2024
VAT digital reporting: an urgent need for a common framework - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Vincent Van Peteghem 10/01/2024
The EU corporate tax reform - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Paolo Gentiloni 03/07/2023
Component Taxation in the Energy Tax Directive recast - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Elizabeth Svantesson, Minister for Finance of Sweden 01/03/2023
Global minimum tax - EU's Pillar Two Directive - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Zbynĕk Stanjura 28/11/2022
Proposal for Securing the Activity Framework of Enablers (SAFE) - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Gerassimos Thomas, Director General DG TAXUD 27/10/2022
Extraordinary tax measures - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Zbynĕk Stanjura 31/08/2022
The carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) and minimum corporate tax - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Bruno Lemaire ahead of the Council of Economic and Finance Ministers meeting on 15 March 2022 10/03/2022
EU implementation of OECD corporate tax reforms - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Paolo Gentiloni 30/11/2021
European Commission proposal for a digital levy - Letter to Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission 07/07/2021
Interinstitutional negotiations on public country-by-country reporting (Public CbCR) - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer 23/03/2021
Interest limitation rule - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to European Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni 12/06/2020
Directive on administrative cooperation (DAC6) - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to EU Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni 27/04/2020
Explanatory notes on VAT quick fixes - Letter from James Watson to Maria Elena Scoppio 07/10/2019
VAT Treatment of Vouchers - Letter from James Watson to Maria Teresa Fabregas-Fernandez, Director of Indirect Taxation and Tax Administration, Directorate-General: Taxation and Customs Union 16/05/2019
Dispute resolution and avoidance mechanisms - Letter from James Watson to Martin Kreienbaum, Chair of the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs 13/12/2018
Digital taxation - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to President of the ECOFIN-Council Hartwig Löger 30/11/2018
Digital taxation - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis 04/12/2017
BEPS Action 7: additional guidance on the attribution of profits to permanent establishments - BusinessEurope position on the public discussion draft 06/11/2017
BEPS Action 10: revised guidance on profit splits - BusinessEurope position on the public discussion draft 06/11/2017
Public country-by-country reporting - Letter from Markus J. Beyrer to Roberto Gualtieri, Chair of the EP ECON Committee 30/03/2017
Press releases Date
BEFIT Tax Package: Business community urges caution and global alignment 25/01/2024
BusinessEurope reacts to proposed EU Framework for Income Taxation 12/09/2023
EU own resources plans must not add burden on business 22/12/2021
Corporate tax should support growth and investment 18/05/2021
Digital taxation should be based on OECD agreement 21/03/2018
EU Commission VAT proposals can lead to less complexity, less fragmentation, less tax fraud and evasion 04/10/2017
Tax systems must support the take-up of digital technologies in Europe 21/09/2017
Sailing the wind of economic improvements to further strengthen Europe 13/09/2017
Position papers Date
Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation (BEFIT) - a BusinessEurope position paper 24/01/2024
Proposal for a Directive on transfer pricing - a BusinessEurope position paper 22/12/2023
Directive establishing a head office tax system for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - a BusinessEurope position paper 14/12/2023
VAT in the Digital Age - BusinessEurope’s comments in response to the public consultation 03/04/2023
Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation (BEFIT) - BusinessEurope’s comments in response to the public consultation 25/01/2023
Debt-equity bias reduction allowance (DEBRA) - a BusinessEurope position paper 13/10/2022
New EU system for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax abuse in the field of withholding taxes - BusinessEurope reply to the public consultation 24/06/2022
Unshell - Laying down rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes - a BusinessEurope position paper 12/05/2022
VAT in the digital age – BusinessEurope reply to the public consultation 03/05/2022
Directive on ensuring a minimum level of taxation for multinational groups within the European Union (‘Pillar Two’) - a BusinessEurope position paper 02/02/2022
Debt-Equity Bias Reduction Allowance (DEBRA) - BusinessEurope reply to the public consultation 06/10/2021
Cross-border resolution of tax disputes for SMEs: a European framework - BusinessEurope reply to the European Commission survey 07/09/2021
Fighting the use of shell entities and arrangements for tax purposes - BusinessEurope's reply to the public consultation 24/08/2021
Improving the situation of EU citizens as taxpayers for indirect tax - BusinessEurope reply to the public consultation 01/06/2021
Review of VAT rules for financial and insurance services - BusinessEurope reply to the public consultation 21/04/2021
EU digital levy - BusinessEurope reply to the public consultation 15/03/2021
OECD reports on the Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 blueprints - BusinessEurope's reply to the public consultation 09/12/2020
Revision of the energy taxation directive - BusinessEurope's reply to the public consultation 13/10/2020
Special VAT scheme for travel agents and tour operators - BusinessEurope's reply to the public consultation 09/09/2020
Strengthen the Exchange of Information Framework in the Field of Taxation - BusinessEurope's reply to the public consultation 23/03/2020
Comments on the OECD Public Consultation on the Global Anti-Base Erosion Proposal (GloBE) under Pillar 2 02/12/2019
Proposal for a unified approach under OECD Pillar 1 - BusinessEurope’s reply to the public consultation 08/11/2019
Introducing certain requirements for payment service providers - BusinessEurope position paper on the European Commission directive 03/06/2019
Addressing the tax challenges of the digitalisation of the economy - BusinessEurope response to the OECD public consultation 06/03/2019
Definitive VAT system for cross-border trade 14/12/2018
Taxation of the digital economy - a BusinessEurope position paper 13/07/2018
Evaluation of the EU framework for taxation of energy products and electricity - BusinessEurope's reply to the public consultation 04/06/2018
Proposed amendment to VAT treatment of SMEs 20/03/2018
Fair taxation of the digital economy - BusinessEurope's reply to the public consultation 21/12/2017
Generalised reverse charge mechanism - a BusinessEurope position paper 28/03/2017
Modernising VAT for cross-border e-commerce - a BusinessEurope position paper 28/03/2017
Special scheme for small enterprises under the VAT directive - BusinessEurope's reply to the public consultation 20/03/2017
Definitive VAT system for business-to-business (B2B) intra-EU transactions on goods - BusinessEurope's reply to the public consultation 20/03/2017
Double taxation dispute resolution mechanism - a BusinessEurope position paper 22/02/2017
Common corporate tax base (CCTB) and common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) - a BusinessEurope position paper 22/02/2017
Disincentives for advisors and intermediaries for potentially aggressive tax planning schemes - BusinessEurope's reply to the open public consultation 15/02/2017
Reports and studies Date
Towards a simplified, sustainable and robust VAT system 04/12/2019

Contact

James Watson

Director
Tel:
+32 2 237 65 15

Mariella Caruana

Senior Adviser
Tel:
+32 2 237 65 21
Last updated: 5 September 2023