EU Tax Omnibus: a major step forward for competitiveness

BusinessEurope today welcomed the European Commission's Direct Taxation Omnibus proposal, aimed at simplifying the EU’s corporate tax framework.

BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer said: "European businesses have spent years navigating an increasingly complex tax framework. Today, the Commission has taken a major step to address this, in line with its commitment to cut administrative burdens by 25% and by 35% for SMEs.

Among the most welcome elements in the Direct Taxation Omnibus are the removal of withholding taxes on cross-border interest, royalty, and dividend payments, together with reduced duplicate compliance checks for companies already covered by the global minimum tax, and exemptions that free smaller companies from rules designed for large multinationals so they can grow and scale up. These changes will make it easier to invest across Europe and strengthen the EU’s competitiveness at a time of intense global competition.

Beyond these headline measures, the proposal improves interest deduction and dispute resolution rules. The new EU-wide research and development allowance is also a welcome step. BusinessEurope will advocate for it to reflect how research and development happens today, supporting innovation in all its forms.

The Council must now move swiftly to turn these proposals into law. Europe's competitiveness and credibility depend on it.”

The accompanying Recast of the administrative cooperation rules shares the same goal of reduced reporting burdens, which we support. We will examine the detail closely in the coming weeks.