A wind of change? Reforms of Tax Systems since the launch of Europe 2020

Gaëlle Garnier, Endre György, Kees Heineken, Milena Mathé, Laura Puglisi, Savino Rua, Agnieszka Skonieczna and Astrid Van Mierlo
Additional contact information
Gaëlle Garnier: European Commission
Endre György: European Commission
Kees Heineken: European Commission
Milena Mathé: European Commission
Laura Puglisi: European Commission
Savino Rua: European Commission
Astrid Van Mierlo: European Commission

No 49, Taxation Papers from Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission

Abstract: This paper reviews the tax reforms implemented by EU Member States since the adoption of the first country-specific recommendations in the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy. Even though there is a need for more action, as evidenced by the number of tax recommendations, overall many Member States have put in place reforms that follow the logic of the EU policy recommendations in most priority areas. A large number of Member States have recently introduced targeted reductions in the tax burden on labour and have shifted the tax burden towards less detrimental tax bases, although these changes have been of a limited magnitude. Tax incentives to support research and development have grown in importance, and have contributed to sustaining R&D investment during the crisis. Regarding private debt, which was one of the roots of the crisis, several Member States have taken measures to reduce the debt bias in their tax system. Almost half of the Member States have shifted some of the tax burden to recurrent immovable property taxes, even if significant increases were only observed in a few countries. Finally, many Member States have worked on strengthening tax compliance with some of them reporting tangible financial results. However, progress has been more limited in relation to environmental tax reforms and VAT.

Keywords: European Union; European Semester; taxation, tax policy; VAT; fraud; corporate taxation; personal income taxation; environment; research and development; compliance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 H20 H24 H25 H26 H27 H87 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2014-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-eec, nep-iue, nep-pbe and nep-pub
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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