mr president tax fraud is a crime that not only robs governments but also robs every single taxpayer every single citizen who does pay their tax on time
there has been much good work by the oecd the g twenty and indeed the various rapporteurs in parliament on the work to help combat tax fraud
i would like to speak specifically on mr domenici's report and to thank him for the great transparency that he has shown in working together across parliament to improve this document
however i do have three concerns
the first one is that combating tax fraud should not be used as a back door excuse for those who want to open up the debate on tax harmonisation across the eu
there is wording in the document about the common consolidated corporate tax base and i think we should wait until the commission comes to us later on this year with their impact assessment before jumping to a conclusion on any of the pros and cons of that debate
the second point is on the controversial matter of exchange of information
it is very clear that in certain circumstances better exchange is needed and indeed like the savings tax the automatic exchange does have benefits
this document goes much wider and demands automatic exchange in all areas
i would rather we looked at each specific circumstance to see where we need it
thirdly the domenici report suggests an eu-wide levy on financial movements to and from certain jurisdictions
there are different sanctions and different incentives as the commissioner has pointed out that could be used to promote good behaviour in this area
i am very concerned that we could be going back with just one suggestion which could be hugely controversial by having these words about an eu-level levy
