Cooperation between Member States is an essential element in tackling tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning. EU legislation provides for administrative cooperation between Member States' tax authorities, and sets out a series of instruments to help them to cooperate in collecting their due revenues. The Commission believes that the effective use of these instruments is currently sub-optimal, and that Member States could gain advantage from their better exploitation.
There are also a number of different groups that discuss EU taxation issues. These are important tools for ensuring cooperation, coordination and information exchange between Member States and for consulting with various stakeholders on key issues. Two groups in particular, the Code of Conduct for Business Taxation Group and the Platform on Tax Good Governance, have played an important role in EU tax policy. However, they now need to be reviewed to ensure that they make a positive and effective contribution in the future.
