TAXATION: COMMISSION SUGGESTS HOME STATE TAXATION FOR SMALL FIRMS TRADING ABROAD.

• Position: Brief Article

The Commission's aim is to overcome what it considers to be the "biggest obstacle in building the Internal Market", leaving a very low percentage of small businesses venturing into cross-border operations. Currently only 3% of SMEs in the EU are present in countries other than their country of origin. The main reasons for this are the tax barriers encountered when taking business across national borders because of the lack of tax harmonisation in Europe, such as double taxation, the cost of conforming and administrative complications restricting their desire to expand. In addition, these additional costs are much more of a burden for SMEs than large companies. The extra tax for the latter represents 0.02% of their turnover whereas it represents 2.5% of turnover for SMEs, according to figures published by UEAPME.

The Commission feels that imposing taxes according to home state rules is the best solution because it applies the Internal Market's principle of mutual recognition to company taxation. In concrete terms, an SME that opens a subsidiary in another...