Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said this evening that the government would be commissioning a study on the impact that the European Commission’s Anti-Tax Avoidance Package would have on the Maltese economy.

Speaking in Parliament, Professor Scicluna said he regretted that such an impact assessment had not been carried out by the Commission itself.

While some of the proposals could be accepted, one needed to see flexibility in some other measures. Some proposals went beyond what was needed to tackle tax avoidance.

The Finance Minister said it was too early to adopt a position.  The government would safeguard the country’s interests in talks with the EU and would not accept changes to Malta's tax regime. Malta believed that tax policies should remain a matter of national competence and EU decisions should be by unanimity. This was a red line for Malta, Professor Scicluna said.

Malta was against tax evasion and would cooperate on transparency and exchange of tax information but it would resist any moves for harmonisation of tax rates or the full imputation system.

Shadow Finance Minister Mario de Marco said the Opposition agreed that tax harmonisation should be resisted and that national sovereignty on taxation matters should be maintained. It would be unacceptable for the European Commission to object to Malta's tax regime after it was approved by the Taxation Code of Conduct Group.

While the country was against tax evasion there was nothing wrong with tax planning, he insisted. Dr de Marco also suggested that the opposition should form part of the government's task force on taxation, when they had shown that they agreed on policy.