New hope for better tax agreements
At present, there are several cross-border tax treaties, but none apply to the whole of the Nordic Region, so people do not have the same rights and opportunities everywhere.
To address this issue, the Nordic Council funded the report “Working across the Nordic Region – Proposals for simplifying Nordic tax rules with a focus on greater mobility”.
The report comes to the clear conclusion that the current three tax treaties should be merged into a single, simplified agreement that covers the whole region and applies to people, businesses and official agencies.
Based on the report, the Nordic Council issued a recommendation to the national finance ministers but found the response lukewarm. Kjell-Arne Ottosson, chair of the Committee for Growth and Development, thinks the ministers for Nordic co-operation need to take action.
“From the responses so far, we can only conclude that the finance ministers haven’t been very willing to take seriously the challenges faced by people and businesses. They have not heeded our call for a Nordic tax agreement,” he says.
The Nordic Council of Ministers presented its new five-year co-operation programmes at the Session of the Nordic Council in Reykjavík and said that the co-operation ministers will make regular decisions on which major problem areas the governments will address. Ottosson wanted to know if the co-operation ministers considered tax to be such an area. The Norwegian Minister for Co-operation, Anne Beathe Kristiansen Tvinnereim, responded.
“The most difficult obstacles to cross-border freedom of movement will be the last ones to go. Tax-related issues fall into that category. The new five-year co-operation programmes involve greater efforts to promote freedom of movement. So the answer to the question of whether tax will be a priority is – Yes! Both the report referred to and the Freedom of Movement Council stress that this is one of the most stubborn obstacles to greater mobility,” Tvinnereim says.
The new five-year co-operation programmes involve greater efforts to promote freedom of movement. So the answer to the question of whether tax will be a priority is – Yes!
Ottosson was pleased with the response but will keep pushing.
“The response was much as expected when discussing such an important matter, and a little more than we dared hope for. It is important that the Nordic Council now follows up on the positive response from the Norwegian Minister for Nordic Co-operation and exerts pressure on those governments that ease off when difficulties arise. We owe it to all of our people, not just in border areas, but throughout the whole of the Nordic Region,” Ottosson concludes.
