COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EX-ANTE EVALUATION Accompanying the document Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing the "Fiscalis" programme for cooperation in the field of taxation
Date: 2018-06-08
Institutions: Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, European tax cooperation, administrative cooperation, cross-border cooperation, single market, tax authorities, tax avoidance, tax law, tax offence

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 8.6.2018 SWD(2018) 324 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EX-ANTE EVALUATION Accompanying the document Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing the "Fiscalis" programme for cooperation in the field of taxation {COM(2018) 443 final} - {SWD(2018) 323 final}  
 
 
Ex-ante evaluation on a Proposal for a Regulation establishing the Fiscalis programme for cooperation in the field of 
taxation 

Executive Summary Sheet 

Why? What is the problem being addressed?  

A. Need for action 

Over  the  recent  years,  the  political  agenda  in  taxation  has  been  increasingly  influenced  by  trends  such  as 
international  tax competition between countries  and  aggressive tax planning  strategies by companies. Nowadays, 
tax administrations are also faced with the impacts of digitalisation, new economic models – such as e-commerce 
and sharing economy – and resource cuts.  
Against  this  background,  tax  administrations  suffer  from  a  problem  of  insufficient  capacity  and  insufficient 
cooperation – both within the EU and with third countries – to carry out effectively and efficiently their missions.  
The drivers at the root of this problem are two-fold:  
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unequal capacity of tax administrations: unequal skills, which entails that some may be more advanced / agile 
than others to respond to the identified trends; unequal functioning, which entails inconsistencies in the quality 
of processes and operations, with some being more performing than others; unequal IT systems, which entails 
that some may be better equipped with IT systems than others; 
obstacles for cooperation between tax administrations and other stakeholders: strategic obstacles (divergence 
in terms of priorities and strategic objectives, fiscal competition, etc.), geographical obstacles (relations among 
Member  States  and  with  third  countries),  legal  obstacles  (absence  or  inadequacy  of  legal  cooperation 
framework, non-harmonised tax systems, mismatches of rules, uneven interpretation of tax concepts, etc.) and 
administrative obstacles (different processes, interoperability, etc.). 

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The  effect  of  this  performance  problem  is  an  inadequate  functioning  of  tax  systems  in  the  EU,  which  in  turn 
jeopardises the functioning of the internal market and the 4 freedoms, wrecks social fairness and undermines EU 
competitiveness.  

What is this initiative expected to achieve?  

1. The Programme has the  general objective to support tax authorities and taxation to enhance the functioning of 
the single market, foster Union competitiveness and protect the financial and economic interests of the Union and its 
Member States. 
2.  The  Programme  has  the  specific  objective  to  support  tax  policy,  tax  cooperation  and  administrative  capacity 
building, including human competency and the development and operation of the European electronic systems.  

What is the value added of action at the EU level?  
The  EU  tax  objectives  of  fighting  against  tax  fraud,  tax  evasion  and  tax  avoidance,  improving  tax  fairness  and 
transparency as well as supporting the functioning of the single market and competitiveness cannot be achieved by 
tax 
the  Member  States  alone.  Common  rules,  coordination  and  cooperation  between  Member  States' 
administrations are needed to deliver on these objectives and face all related challenges.  
Such  a  high degree of  cooperation  and  coordination  can  only  be  achieved  with  a  centralised  approach,  ideally  at 
Union  level.  Fiscalis  activities  are  more  cost-effective  than  if  each  participating  country  were  to  set  up  individual 
cooperation  frameworks  on  a  bilateral  or  multilateral  basis  and  develop  national  IT  solutions  for  transnational 
problems.  The  Fiscalis  activities  and  mechanisms  of  cooperation  moreover  allow  deepening  significantly  the  trust 
amongst  national  tax  administrations  that  is  necessary  for  a  smooth  cooperation  and  co-functioning  of  EU  tax 
systems in the single market.  

B. Solutions 

What legislative and non-legislative policy options have been considered? Is there a preferred choice 
or not? Why?  
The "continuity plus" policy option (preferred option) was considered in comparison with the current Fiscalis  2020 
programme. Under this option, the programme would aim to deliver fully on the EU tax policy agenda by not only 
developing and maintaining IT systems but also effectively addressing present and incoming tax challenges in line 
with  recent  political  developments  and  future  commitments  in  view  of  the  high  expectations  from  EU  citizens  and 
businesses to jointly address tax fraud and evasion problems and make meaningful progress with the completion of 
the internal market. It would in particular allow for enhanced operational cooperation on key (geographic or sectoral) 
issues of interest to large sub-groups of participating countries and tackling better innovation needs. While pooling 
only limited additional funds at EU level, it would allow avoiding duplication of work, fostering advanced cooperation 

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and  standardisation,  benefitting  from  economies  of  scale  and  thereby,  as  demonstrated  by  recent  experiences, 
increase significantly the programme’s overall added value and enhance the functioning and modernisation of the 
taxation systems and thus the internal market.  
Concretely, this option would propose a comprehensive framework to address coherently the challenges identified 
above.  On top of the continuity of existing IT systems as of 2020 ("legacy 2020"), IT capacity building would ensure 
that new IT projects can be on-boarded as it has happened so far; in addition, innovation would be made possible, 
i.e. some budget is also available for working on new technologies and trends (e.g. e-commerce, big data, data 
analytics, blockchain). Cooperation would be increased and intensified – although only limited additional financial 
means would be required – in order to help simplify rules, improve compliance, prevent where possible and fight 
fraud and increase transparency as well as to accompany the enhanced exchange of information brought about by 
new IT developments. Such increased cooperation would materialize not only through the traditional joint actions 
and capacity building activities but also through enhanced operational cooperation.  

Who supports which option?  
All  stakeholders  favour  the  "continuity  plus"  policy  option.  Stakeholder’s  consultations  mainly  focused  on  tax 
administrations as direct beneficiaries of the programme. They also strongly supported the continuation of this well-
functioning programme and suggested reaping exponential benefits by reinforcing marginally its actions as per this 
option.  

C. Impacts of the preferred option 

What are the benefits of the preferred option (if any, otherwise main ones)?  

Tax administrations are the direct beneficiaries of the programme. Under option the "continuity plus" policy option, 
the  programme  will  provide  them  with  the  necessary  (operational,  organisational,  methodological  and  budgetary) 
framework for cooperation. Administrative capacity building, including IT and human capacity, will help them evolve 
further towards modern administrations  able  to deal with the increased number of core tasks incumbent on them. 
The preferred option would allow the Union to maintain its current role and capacity of steering the tax agenda by 
combining tax regulatory interventions with integrated implementation approaches with specific and meaningful EU 
actions  in  the  tax  field.  All  the  substantial  enhancements  suggested  under  this  scenario  would  allow  reinforcing 
exponentially the effects of the well-established joint actions and IT / human capacity building initiatives and thereby 
reaping significantly more benefits from Fiscalis. 

What are the costs of the preferred option (if any, otherwise main ones)?  

No specific economic, social and environmental negative impact is expected. 

How will businesses, SMEs and micro-enterprises be affected?  

The  programme  does  not include  any measure  targeting  directly  businesses, SMEs  and  micro-enterprises.  Some 
indirect benefits for businesses will come from available training tools. 

Will there be significant impacts on national budgets and administrations?  
The programme aims at financing actions in favour of tax administrations. The main expenditure will happen through 
public  procurement  for  developing  and  running  European  IT  systems.  Those  systems  not  being  fully  centralised, 
investments are also needed at national level for putting them in place.  

Will there be other significant impacts?  
There are no other significant impacts.  

D. Follow up 

When will the policy be reviewed?  
To facilitate the evaluation of the programme, a framework  for monitoring the results  achieved by the programme 
will  be  put  in  place.  Full  transparency  with  regular  reporting  on  monitoring  and  evaluation  to  the  European 
Parliament and to the Council will be ensured. An interim evaluation looking at the achievement of the objectives of 
the programme, its efficiency and its added value at European level will be carried out. A final evaluation will deal 
with the long-term impact and the sustainability effects of the programme.  

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