Maastricht: The EU taxation omnibus is now open to public comment, giving companies, advisers and tax authorities until 5 November 2026 to react to the Commission’s plan to simplify corporate tax directives. The Commission launched the consultation on 10 September, and it covers the proposal the Commission published on 24 June 2026 as part of a wider tax simplification package.
The package has two parts: the taxation omnibus itself and a recast of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation. The omnibus changes several long-standing corporate tax directives, among them the Interest and Royalties Directive, the Merger Directive, the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive and the directive on tax dispute resolution. It also touches the FASTER directive on withholding tax relief.
The Commission wants to cut the administrative burden on businesses by at least 25 percent overall, and by at least 35 percent for small and medium-sized firms, by 2029. It estimates that the changes would save European businesses around €8 billion a year. The Commission argues that lighter rules under the taxation omnibus would let finance teams spend less time on compliance and more on investment. It describes the plan as designed to simplify, not deregulate, and says it will not weaken existing protection against tax avoidance.
Several measures in the taxation omnibus stand out. Cross-border dividend, interest and royalty payments between EU companies would be exempt from withholding tax. The interest limitation rule in the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive would lose its national options, make the de minimis threshold mandatory and exclude low-risk third-party loans. The proposal also removes the rules on imported hybrid mismatches and the overlap between controlled foreign company rules and the Minimum Taxation Directive.
Other changes would help companies that restructure across borders. The Merger Directive would be extended so that all cross-border reorganisations covered by EU company law can go ahead without immediate taxation. The proposal also sets a common minimum standard for the tax treatment of investment in research-related tangible assets and tidies up the dispute resolution procedure so taxpayers can use it more easily.
The consultation is only the first step. The proposal goes to the European Parliament for an opinion and to the Council for adoption, where tax files need agreement among all member states. If adopted, most provisions would apply from 1 January 2029, with certain exceptions. Businesses that want to shape the taxation omnibus have a short window to do so, and the responses will show how much support exists for the Commission’s balance between simpler compliance and firm anti-avoidance safeguards.
