These shady practices are creating vast inequalities in our societies and draining the public purse of the vital contributions we need to relaunch Europe's economy and finance the services European citizens deserve. Across Europe, governments have raised tax levels for ordinary citizens and cut spending on hospitals, education and public services.

Tax deals for big companies are just no longer morally acceptable.

On 5 November 2014, a group of international journalists uncovered the #LuxLeaks scandal: more than 300 secret 'sweetheart' deals – known as 'tax rulings' – were agreed between multinationals and the Luxembourg government between 2002 and 2010 in order to slash their global tax bills.

Since then, more revelations have shown other European governments and banks have been complicit in helping big business hide its assets and avoid paying the taxes they should. Journalists working on the #SwissLeaks files in February 2015 found bankers were helping wealthy clients evade taxes on an industrial scale and the Commission judged that tax deals for Fiat and Starbucks were beyond shady and were actually illegal state aid. Then, on 30 August 2016, the European Commission announced that they considered Ireland’s tax deal with Apple as illegal state aid. Apple was ordered to reimburse €13 billion in unpaid tax. The tax rulings had allowed Apple to pay a meagre 0.005% tax on all its European profits in 2014.

In April 2016, the #PanamaPapers unearthed evidence of money laundering, tax dodging, bogus offshore companies and illegal use of tax havens on a vast scale. The 11.5 million leaked documents revealed information on over 200,000 offshore companies, implicating amongst others 140 public officials, including 12 current and former world leaders! Most recently, the network of journalists behind the previous tax leaks broke the news of the #BahamasLeaks, revealing even more connections between dodgy offshore companies and high-level decision-makers.

But it's clear these revelations are just the tip of a very large iceberg. These scandals have revealed the destructive tax competition between member states and the criminal lengths the rich and powerful – and the secretive industry that helps them – will go to hide their wealth and avoid paying a fair share to society.

• Tax fraud, evasion and avoidance cost European citizens €1 trillion each year. That's €2,000 per citizen!
• This tax gap between the revenues due and what is actually paid is more than what all EU states put together spend on healthcare.
• With that public money, we could invest 4 times more in education.
• Each year, $250 billion is hidden in tax havens.
• Tax fraud, evasion and avoidance mean higher taxes for citizens and less public investment in education, infrastructure and health.
• Some countries allow direct negotiation of tax deals between companies and the tax authorities so they pay almost nothing, while the average tax rate for citizens in the EU is around 45% (Institut économique Molinari).
• Italy is the biggest tax loser with an annual €180 billion loss. Estonia loses more than 28% of its government spending due to tax evasion each year.
• A global financial transaction tax of 0.05%, with an additional fiscal stimulus of 1%, could help create 2 to 3 million jobs in Europe alone.
• It is estimated that developing countries lose 3 times more to tax havens than they receive in foreign aid each year.
• 30% of all African financial wealth is believed to be held offshore, an estimated $14 billion in lost tax revenues every year – enough to save the lives of up to 4 million children a year and get every African child into school.

We believe the EU must work together to clamp down on tax fraud, close legal loopholes and tax havens, and improve transparency and cross-border co-operation to end the banking secrecy that lets the fraudsters and dodgy dealers get away with it.

The S&Ds have been working hard to get European solutions to the problems that drain the finances of our societies. We've set out our demands and one by one we’re turning the red lights to green and achieving our goals!

● A European blacklist of tax havens, with sanctions for those dealing with them
● Protection for whistleblowers
● Penalties for tax advisors and financial institutions who help tax cheats
● A public register of ‘beneficial ownership’ to force companies to reveal who really makes the profits and what tax is due
● More transparency from EU governments on tax deals negotiated between national tax administrations and multinationals (deals which were at the heart of the LuxLeaks scandal) – and sanctions for those who break the rules
● Automatic exchanges of country-by-country reports between the tax administrations of Europe – the European Parliament has voted to set this up so governments can track where taxes should be due
● New rules from EU governments to force multinational companies to publicly declare where profits and taxes are paid on a country-by-country basis
● A ban on ‘letterbox’ companies – multinationals who register a in low-tax countries to avoid paying tax due where they really operate
● An EU tax authority to co-ordinate between national tax authorities to crack down on cross-border tax crime
● A full common consolidated tax base for corporate taxation (CCCTB) – a single set of rules for cross-border companies to calculate their taxable profits in the EU
● Tough EU legislation to stop big companies using tax breaks on patents to dodge taxes
● Reform of the Code of Conduct group - we need more than a voluntary code to regulate tax competition and stamp out abuses

 Join us to keep up the pressure and achieve these goals for #TaxJustice. Together we'll make sure everybody pays their fair share.

In the wake of the #LuxLeaks revelations, the European Parliament set up a Special Committee on Tax Rulings - TAXE 1 in February 2015 to investigate allegations that some EU countries are offering special minimal tax regimes to attract large corporations. The mandate of the Special Committee on Tax Rulings (TAXE 1) ended on 30 November 2015.

After the special committee TAXE I reported its findings, the European Parliament voted in December 2015 to continue and widen its work and set up the Special Committee on Tax Rulings - TAXE 2, to ensure that the long list of recommendations were put into action. The TAXE 2 Special Committee's report was adopted in Plenary on 6 July 2016 and the mandate of the Special Committee on Tax Rulings (TAXE 2) ended on 2 August 2016.

After 18 months of investigations, hearings and fact-finding missions on the Panama Papers, the European Parliament has adopted, on 13 December 2017 during the plenary session in Strasbourg, over 200 strong concrete recommendations to fight international tax avoidance, tax fraud and money laundering. They include many progressive proposals, such as to abandon the unanimity rule decisions in tax matters and the introduction of sanctions for those dealing with tax havens, thanks to the work of the S&D rapporteur Jeppe Kofod.

The European Parliament's vote in plenary on the findings and recommendations puts an end to the mandate of the inquiry committee on the Panama Papers.

The Socialists and Democrats however are in favour of keeping up the work related to tax matters. They are calling for a special committee on the Paradise Papers and, in the long run, for a permanent structure which would allow for continuing investigations and keeping up the pressure on member states. To be continued.....

On the initiative of the Socialists and Democrats, the European Parliament has decided to set up a special committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance. The green light was given on March 14, 2018 in Strasbourg.

The new special committee will have 45 members and will be in place for 12 months.

It will continue the work carried out by the previous special tax committees (1 and 2) and the Panama Papers Inquiry and expand the investigation into new murky areas, such as financial crimes, including the impact of VAT fraud. The committee will contribute to the ongoing debate on taxation of the digital economy and assess national schemes providing tax privileges, the so-called golden visas.

The Socialists and Democrats are convinced that it is paramount to keep the pressure on EU governments so that we can build a fairer tax system in Europe.

Find out more here