19 march 2011, the art of taxation

For an awfully long time the european commission has been plugging away at the awfully named common consolidated corporate tax base, but the new integrationist spurt on the economic governance front has given this new life. The eu's history is one of each crisis leading to the jolting forward of ever closer union, and this euro crisis is no exception. Many immediately elide this policy with a common tax rate (e.g. 12%), which it isn't. Rather it is a common system of calculating the corporate (not personal) tax rate, applying consistency to the world of exceptions and methodologies each country has. It's a precondition to a common rate, but does not bring one about: ireland could still undercut everyone else in its successful quest for investment. The main advantage is reductions in costs for big multi-nationals filing returns in many members states: bad news for accountants & consultants. It would also be a boon for smaller companies seeking to break into cross-border eu markets. Britain and the usual suspects are set against it, but as this initiative is now one of a big agreed package (the euro pact) for the 17 not the 27, and as there is a mechanism - enhanced co-operation - available to get it through (after ten years, looks like, eventually, we're going to have a pan-european patent, without spain and italy), the ccctb seems finally to have legs.