Date: 5th December 2017
he Greens/EFA Parliamentary Group took a firm position on taxation rules for any future FTA or Brexit deal with the United Kingdom. Following a report released ahead of the December negotiations, the political group argues that one of the issues that must be at the forefront of the deal is the alignment of UK’s fiscal policy governing the overseas territories with the Member States’ tax rules, in order to avoid ‘unfair tax competition’.
MEP Sven Giegold emphasised that ‘[t]he EU must challenge the UK’s tax haven activities and make a reform of the tax system a condition of any future trade agreement’, based on the argument that the ‘practice of zero tax on company profits in essentially all overseas territories’, along with the British Government’s agenda to ‘make the UK the biggest competitor in the international tax race’, will create a significant competitive disadvantage for EU27 economies.