Minister Scicluna participates at the 13th ASEM- EU Finance Ministers meeting in Sofia

On 26 April, Minister Edward Scicluna participated at the 13th ASEMEU 2018 Finance Ministers meeting, held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The meeting brought together the finance ministers from Europe and Asia to discuss issues of mutual interest. The ministers covered a number of topics, notably the current economic situation, digital taxation and addressing the risks and vulnerabilities of the financial system such as cyber security.

During the session dedicated to tax and the digitisation of the economy, Minister Scicluna addressed the plenary welcoming the OECD report on Tax Challenges Arising from Digitalisation published earlier this year. He noted that the digitisation of the economy poses a number of challenges not least taxation ones. However, one should first determine whether these taxation challenges are local or more wide-spread.

Minister Scicluna said that the issue has first to be ring-fenced. He questioned the need to go for the quick-fixes that are currently being explored. Malta is in favour of long-term permanent solutions which are agreed to by international consensus under the aegis of the OECD. This does not necessarily mean that finding them should take a long time. Rather, what Malta is proposing is finding long-term solutions that can be attained expediently without causing unnecessary disruptions and disparities within and outside the EU.