November 6, 2026

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November 6, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • strategic insight

LATEST
Deposit Insurance Scheme Withdrawn After A Decade Of TalksUnanimity Rule Ends Energy Taxation Directive After 5 YearsNon-Household Electricity Prices Fall 5.4% In First Half Of 2026EU Maritime Security Strategy Report Shows Progress On All Six GoalsNew EU Customs Handling Fee Lands On Every Distance Sale OnlineWest and Central Africa Aid Reaches €235 Million As Crises ConvergeEU-Armenia Summit Delivers Transport Links But No Membership PathCohesion Policy Fight Pits Regions Against National PlansMilitary Mobility Funding Call Closed, Results Due 2027Pay Transparency Directive Deadline Missed By Most StatesDigital Omnibus on AI Delays High-Risk Rules To December 2027Ukraine Accession Roadmap Offers Steps To Membership Without A DateConciliation Looms As EU Budget 2027 Faces 16 November DeadlineImporters Count Down To EU Deforestation Regulation DateFactories Slow As Euro Area Industrial Production DropsCircular Economy Act Slips A Week As Textile Makers PushDAC Recast Would Fold Nine Tax Cooperation Directives Into OneThird-Country Satellites Face EU Space Act Certification HurdleMexico Signature Gives EU-Mexico Agreement Its First Real TestGulf Partnership Stalls as the EU-GCC Summit Loses Its New DateDeposit Insurance Scheme Withdrawn After A Decade Of TalksUnanimity Rule Ends Energy Taxation Directive After 5 YearsNon-Household Electricity Prices Fall 5.4% In First Half Of 2026EU Maritime Security Strategy Report Shows Progress On All Six GoalsNew EU Customs Handling Fee Lands On Every Distance Sale OnlineWest and Central Africa Aid Reaches €235 Million As Crises ConvergeEU-Armenia Summit Delivers Transport Links But No Membership PathCohesion Policy Fight Pits Regions Against National PlansMilitary Mobility Funding Call Closed, Results Due 2027Pay Transparency Directive Deadline Missed By Most StatesDigital Omnibus on AI Delays High-Risk Rules To December 2027Ukraine Accession Roadmap Offers Steps To Membership Without A DateConciliation Looms As EU Budget 2027 Faces 16 November DeadlineImporters Count Down To EU Deforestation Regulation DateFactories Slow As Euro Area Industrial Production DropsCircular Economy Act Slips A Week As Textile Makers PushDAC Recast Would Fold Nine Tax Cooperation Directives Into OneThird-Country Satellites Face EU Space Act Certification HurdleMexico Signature Gives EU-Mexico Agreement Its First Real TestGulf Partnership Stalls as the EU-GCC Summit Loses Its New Date

Business Eyes €8 Billion Savings Via The EU Tax Simplification Package

Peter Pellegrini
National Affairs Correspondent, Taxation

Ghent: Businesses across the bloc are pressing lawmakers to protect the EU tax simplification package, which the Commission presented on 24 June 2026 and which promises savings of about €8 billion a year.

On 28 October, the European Tax Adviser Federation and 22 other associations signed a joint statement backing the EU tax simplification package. They warn that simplification must not weaken taxpayers’ rights. Their statement supports the Commission’s target of cutting administrative burdens by at least 25% for companies and 35% for small firms by 2029.

The package has two parts: a direct taxation Omnibus and a recast of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation, known as DAC. The Omnibus would exempt cross-border dividends, interest and royalties between EU companies from withholding tax, which the Commission values at about €5.3 billion a year. It also extends the Parent-Subsidiary Directive to pension institutions and offers full immediate expensing for research-related tangible assets.

The DAC recast tackles reporting. It removes duplicate reporting for about 3,000 multinational groups already covered by the 15% minimum tax, a saving of around €300 million a year. It also raises the threshold for reporting online sales, which relieves more than 10 million sellers, and it creates a single notification for country-by-country reporting and top-up tax returns.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the commissioner for implementation and simplification, presents the EU tax simplification package as part of a wider drive to save €37.5 billion a year by 2029. Parliament will give an opinion and the Council must adopt both texts. Finance ministers meet in ECOFIN on 9 November and will exchange views on simplification progress reports.

The package also touches the sensitive area of anti-abuse rules. It streamlines the controlled foreign company regime with a harmonised model, worth about €160 million a year, and it removes national options from the interest limitation rule. Financing measures alone would save companies more than €500 million annually, according to the Commission’s press release.

Supporters see a competitiveness argument. Companies that operate in several countries currently file overlapping returns and answer different questions from each tax authority. A shared approach should cut legal fees and free up staff, particularly in small and medium-sized firms that cannot afford large tax departments. Critics counter that governments must keep enough information to fight tax evasion.

Tax advisers stress that data exchange between administrations must keep working while the EU tax simplification package moves through Parliament and the Council. The Commission explains the measures on its Taxation and Customs Union page, and the associations’ joint statement sets out their demands on the EU tax simplification package.

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