GUE/NGL MEPs have commented amid the investigation into tax arrangements in Luxembourg favourable to companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Fiat France.

Portuguese GUE/NGL MEP Marisa Matias said: “Tax authorities in Luxembourg have been far too friendly to corporations like Amazon. The Commission must act to ensure that these companies pay a fine equivalent to the amount of tax they've sidestepped over the years.

“Often the poor who rely on social benefits to meet basic needs are scapegoated as 'scroungers' but in reality it is the biggest corporations who are freeloading by avoiding paying tax. Governments are cheating citizens when they create such favourable environments for corporations, all the while cutting social budgets.”

German GUE/NGL MEP Fabio De Masi said: “We need a minimum EU tax on corporations with broad bases, without which an intensification of tax competition is inevitable.

“Additionally, double taxation agreements with uncooperative tax havens need to be terminated at member state level. Taxation should take place closer to the source of corporations' economic activity. Banks that repeatedly aid and abet tax evasion need to see their licenses withdrawn.”

He added: “Juncker has questions to answer as he was Prime Minister of Luxembourg at the time of the 2003 tax ruling.”

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:
Emily Macintosh +32 470 85 05 08
David Lundy +32 470 85 05 09
European United Left / Nordic Green Left
European Parliamentary Group