By: Joe Kirwin
November 28, 2019
EU plans to require large companies to publicly report their taxes and profits earned on a country-by-country basis stalled again Nov. 28 after 13 EU member states opposed the legislation.
If the legislation had been approved negotiations with the European Parliament would start to finalize the bill. The EP approved its version of the legislation in 2017.
Despite the efforts of EU presidency holder Finland to push the legislation through more than three years after it was proposed, a narrow ‘blocking minority’ of countries rejected the plan—many of them because of the legal mechanism the EU used.
“There seems to be broad support for the idea of increased transparency for company tax reporting but it is clear that there are strong opinions opposing the legal base of this proposal,’’ Finnish Minister of Labour Timmo Harakka stated at the end of a parliamentary debate. “Therefore more work is required on this proposal.’’