Note: This article was published by Bloomberg BNA in Tax Planning International European Tax Service Vol. 17 No. 7 July 2015

The recent LuxLeaks scandal has once again focused political attention on tax planning practices of multinationals. It comes in the wake of the European Commission investigation of tax ruling practices across the EU and in particular their investigations into tax rulings given by Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to Apple, Starbucks and Fiat Finance, respectively, and has acted as further impetus for the European political establishment to clamp down on profit shifting through aggressive tax planning, with particular focus on the use of tax rulings.  The European Parliament has established a special parliamentary committee to examine “tax rulings and other measures similar in nature or effect” given by Member States which will examine tax ruling practices in the Member States since 1991.  In March 2015 the Commission announced a package of measures aimed at increasing tax transparency between Member States. In this article, Brian Duffy and May Dineen explore and comment on these transparency measures.

Contributed by: Brian Duffy & Mary Dineen