Prague, Jan 4 (CTK) – A unification of the rules of taxation of supranational firms in the EU might be a good instrument against tax evasion, Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka said yesterday, challenging Finance Minister Andrej Babis’s opinion that corporate taxes are within the jurisdiction of each EU member state.
Babis (ANO) has expressed this stance in an interview with daily Hospodarske noviny (HN).
He said he doubts that the EU’s planned change might have a positive effect on the Czech state budget.
Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) said the Czech Republic must thoroughly analyse the proposal at first.
“The fight against tax evasion is a priority our [government] coalition has agreed on and which we would not abandon. It must concern not only small entrepreneurs but also big companies, including supranational ones,” Sobotka said in a press release.
He said Babis is scheduled to submit a thorough analysis of the effect of the proposed introduction of a unified and consolidated corporate tax base on the Czech economy and budget by the end of February. Based on it, the government will define Prague’s position, Sobotka said.
The EC proposal aims at supranational companies that seek the best possible tax conditions and deflect their profits to tax havens.
Sobotka said the proposal to introduce a unified tax base in all EU member countries might be crucially important for fighting tax evasion, Sobotka said.
“An improvement of cooperation in this area might bring big advantages to the Czech Republic and Czech companies…In addition, the present system grants an unjust advantage to supranational companies that can also optimalise their taxes directly on the EU territory, while a common Czech entrepreneur honestly pays taxes in the place where they run business,” Sobotka said.
HN wrote that a study by a Mendel University expert has shown that the new rules would raise the Czech budget revenues by an annual six billion crowns.
($1=26.017 crowns)
