The KPMG EU Tax Centre regularly summarises European and global changes in direct taxes that may affect your business.
This special edition focuses on individual direct tax regulations, showing the state of play at EU level and in individual member states. Below, we briefly summarise selected new developments. The complete document can be found here.
Selected news summarised:
Several direct tax regulations are in the final drafting stage. It is unlikely that any of the draft directives below will be finalised during the course of 2024:
- Unshell Directive (requirements on the substance of companies within the EU)
- Transfer Pricing Directive
- BEFIT Directive (uniform corporate tax rules)
- HOT (Head Office Tax System) for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The draft FASTER Directive, which regulates the withholding tax collection mechanism for publicly traded securities (we reported on its approval here), has been approved. The directive will come into force from 2030 and apply only to countries that do not have comprehensive relief at source systems and have low market capitalisation of publicly traded securities (currently Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, and Finland).
Member states are currently in the process of implementing the directives already approved:
- Minimum Tax Directive (the deadline for implementation has passed)
- Directive on disclosure of income tax information (public country-by-country reporting; deadline for implementation has passed)
- DAC 8 governing the notification obligation for crypto assets.
Of the legislative initiatives in areas other than direct taxation, the most advanced is the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) Directive. It was expected to be adopted at the June ECOFIN meeting but has been postponed.