Malta's Minister for Finance, Edward Scicluna, told his fellow finance ministers at the recent EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting that the island fully supports the EU's new VAT e-commerce legislative package.
The package is aimed at simplifying cross-border trading for EU firms while requiring that they support European tax authorities to mitigate fraud. Most notably, the proposals would make online platforms liable for collecting VAT on the distance sales that they facilitate. Scicluna emphasized the importance of simplifying rules and obligations for small and medium sized businesses, while highlighting the importance of the reforms to combating cross-border tax fraud and completing the "Digital Single Market," which will allow EU citizens and businesses to trade and innovate freely.
On the proposed blacklist of tax havens, Scicluna welcomed the exercise and stated the EU listing in itself will have a significant deterrent effect, though additional measures to penalize non-cooperative territories may be necessary.
Scicluna concluded by remarking that Malta supports EU initiatives in favor of tax transparency, as well as those recommendations put forward by the OECD.
By Courtesy of Lowtax.net
