It is reported this week by the EU Observer that the Big Four accounting firms, PWC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY, are said to have received over €462 million for consulting work from the EU Commission.
The report claims that “PWC, for instance, has been involved in the Belgian national tax control framework as part of the co-operative tax compliance reform. At the same time, they note that PWC delivered training and a guidebook for Belgium’s ‘excess profit’ tax scheme, a scheme considered by the commission as an illegal state aid.”
We already know from documents leaks from Luxembourg that all 4 consulting companies have advised hundreds of large companies on how to reduce their tax bills by arranging expensive but legal loans from the same companies’ subsidiaries in Luxembourg thus reducing profits in their home countries.
Finnwatch, the independent think tank, has regularly reported that Finland has lost some more than €1 billion in tax revenues each year because of such activities. Even government-owned companies and big utilities and healthcare companies have been using this option which is hard to understand in the given environment when such companies are claiming the moral high ground about sustainability and good governance.
Finland has lost some more than €1 billion in tax revenues each year because of such activities.
Here is part of a listing from a 2016 report from Finnwatch – (sorry some of it is in Finnish):
