Malta chairs ‘awkward’ EU talks on tax dodging

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Tuesday’s meetings saw a discussion on a common corporate tax base, a scheme to harmonise rules for taxing corporate profits in the EU.

Most countries, including Germany, Luxembourg, and Ireland said they were wary of the scheme as it would reduce the attractiveness of their tax systems.

The delay on a CCTB deal is holding back discussions on another scheme, known as the common consolidated corporate tax base.

Many believe that the CCCTB, a single EU rule on how to calculate companies' taxable income, would close the tax loopholes used by countries, such as Malta, Luxembourg, or Ireland, to attract companies and wealthy individuals.

Ministers were at a "very early stage of a very laborious file," Scicluna said, lowering the expectations for a quick agreement on the CCTB issue.

Some diplomats admitted that holding the discussion - while under the Maltese presidency of the Council of the EU - was "awkward".

"It's a compromise too far," a source from one member state told EUobserver, alluding to the Malta Files revelations.

"We close our eyes to too many things", in order to keep up appearances, the source said.

Scicluna told journalists that "any practitioner would use any tax regime to minimise taxation. That's a fact".

But he said his country was "ready" to change its tax policies if need be.

"All tax regimes can be tweaked … including Malta's," he said. "As long as it is a concerted effort across the EU, we'll move slowly, but surely". (See pg 10 for the DOI statement on the Ecofin meeting)