Maltese MEP Alfred Sant told ECON that he is all in favour of coordinating measures that ensure transparency in taxation on the profits of companies within the EU, but against convergence in the taxes that should be applied by the different member states of the EU.
"I am all out for transparency in reporting how taxes are being applied, but I am very dubious about proposals for convergence of taxation among all EU states," he said.
Dr. Sant was reacting to the report "Bringing transparency, coordination and convergence to Corporate Tax policies in the European Union" at the Economic and Monetary Committee (ECON) of the European Parliament.
He emphasised that as the report opens the prospect of coordination among member states in setting taxation policies that would lead to tax convergence among them, he would be voting against the report.
Dr Sant argued that while coordination was acceptable when carried out to secure the same approach across Europe towards transparent reporting regarding how taxes were being levied on companies, "this should not mean that coordination had to be carried forward to include convergence of national tax systems."
"So that when we vote, I will be voting yes for transparency but not yes for convergence." Dr Sant said. "Conceptually when the report mentioned coordination, it needed to distinguish between coordination of policies to ensure transparency in tax reporting, which is desirable, and coordination to ensure tax convergence, which is not acceptable."
Last year the European Parliament authorised the drafting of this report, following the Luxleaks revelations by a consortium of journalists in November 2014, which revealed that many multinational companies concluded secret deals with the Luxembourg Finance Ministry that allowed them massive reductions of their tax liability.