The EC is currently investigating under the State aid rules tax
ruling practices in Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and
Belgium. Broadly, the issue is selective advantageous treatment of
particular companies or types of companies, which might be illegal
under EU State aid law.
Separately, the EC proposed on 18 March 2015 a package of tax
transparency measures designed to tackle "corporate tax
avoidance and harmful tax competition in the EU". The central
component of the package is a legislative proposal to improve
cooperation between EU member states in relation to their
cross-border tax rulings.
Currently, member states share very little information with one
another about their tax rulings since it is a matter for the
discretion of the member state to decide whether a tax ruling might
be relevant to another EU country. The EC considers that the lack
of transparency on tax rulings is being exploited by certain
companies in order to artificially reduce their
