Tax avoidance

So is corporate tax avoidance on the way out? Don't bet on it

The days of loopholes are numbered, said EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici.

Don't count on it.

The suite of measures announced by the EU yesterday, which essentially proposes making elements of the OECD's BEPs project legally binding, have an impressive air about them.

Companies would be deterred from shifting their profits from parent companies to subsidiaries in low or no tax countries; loopholes that allow companies to use dividends or capital gains to skip taxation would be closed; and, in a bid to increase transparency, corporations will have to reveal their taxes, profits, revenues and other financial data to the authorities in all countries where they operate.

There's some understandable uncertainty about what the implications may be for companies as they adjust to the new reality.