BRUSSELS: The European Commission has laid out plans to clamp down on so-called sweetheart tax deals between governments and multinationals.
The Tax Transparency Package proposes that European governments automatically exchange details of tax rulings to try to tackle “aggressive tax planning”.
Each country would have to declare all its tax rulings every three months.
The move comes during ongoing investigations into a number of member states’ tax regimes.
Luxembourg, Ireland and the Netherlands have all been put under the spotlight.
Belgium’s tax deals are also under scrutiny. The Commission is investigating whether the tax regimes of the EU nations amount to state aid.
Allegations also emerged last year that around 340 multinational companies had tax avoidance deals with Luxembourg.
Among the companies accused of signing “sweetheart deals” with Luxembourg to avoid billions in taxes in other countries were Pepsi, Amazon, Ikea, Microsoft, Disney, Skype and Fiat.
