Further to the European Commission's report “Towards implementing harmonised public sector accounting standards in Member States”, more..., the European Commision organised a conference on 30 May 2013 that brought together high-level stakeholders and decision makers from public sector accounting, auditing and statistics to discuss the future development of harmonised government accounting standards in Europe.
 

FEE CEO Olivier Boutellis-Taft spoke on “The need for fiscal transparency and harmonised public sector accounting standards”. more... Thomas Müller-Marqués Berger, Chair of the FEE Public Sector Working Party was representing FEE on the panel on “Accounting standards, governance, the way forward”. Presentations, papers and conclusions can be obtained from the dedicated conference website shortly. more...

 

The subject continues to be high on the agenda in the EU and globally.
 

Further to the European Commission’s Action Plan to combat tax fraud and tax evasion more... and its Recommendations to Member States regarding aggressive tax planning more... and promotion of good governance in tax matters globally more..., the European Commission has set up a Platform on Tax Good Governance, Aggressive Tax Planning and Double Taxation. more... It aims at a dialogue between business, civil society and national tax authorities' experts on issues regarding transparency, exchange of information, fair tax competition, aggressive tax planning and double taxation. FEE will represent the views of the European accountancy profession in this Platform, the first meeting is scheduled for 10 June 2013.

In its contribution ahead of the European Council on 22 May 2013, the European Commission has reiterated the need for determined action on national, European and international level. more... In the European Council, Member States agreed to give priority to the concrete follow-up to the Action Plan. more...

The international debate will unfold further around the OECD’s action plan that will come out in the following weeks. Earlier this year, the OECD had already published a report addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) more..., aiming to identify key pressure areas where action is needed on international level. The BEPS report highlights that tax planning is not illegal thus governments cannot blame business for using the rules that governments themselves have put in place. It is governments’ responsibility to revise the rules in order to adapt to the needs of the globalised economies.
 

Accountants providing tax advice have an important role to play in their tri-partite relationship with taxpayers and tax administrations. In the past, FEE had published views on these matters in the context of the OECD Tax Intermediaries Study. more... In its resolution of 21 May 2013, the European Parliament called on the Commission to prepare and promote a Code of Conduct for auditors and advisers and called on auditing firms to alert national tax authorities to any signs of aggressive tax planning of the audited company. more... FEE plans to contribute to the debate with an analysis of the role of accountants providing tax advice. The matter will also be addressed within the forthcoming FEE Tax Day on 2 October 2013. more...

 

The proposed Statutory Audit Directive and Regulation are making their way in the ordinary legislative procedure. Compared to the European Commission’s initial proposals, the parliamentary debate went into the right direction. See published JURI reports of 20 May 2013 and 13 May 2013.
 

On 29 May 2013, the Council of the European Union composed of European Affairs, Industry and Research Ministers (Competitiveness Council) discussed in particular the capping for the provision of non-audit services to audit clients as a percentage of the audit fees, the duration of the audit engagement/mandatory audit firm rotation and the coordination of oversight by ESMA (or by an alternative to the EGAOB). more... FEE calls on all parties to find solutions that support audit quality and are compatible with international standards. more...

 

Improving access to finance for SMEs is key to economic recovery. The joint report of the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group (European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund) summarises what the EIB Group and the European Commission have done in 2012 for SMEs. The EIB Group’s support for SMEs reached 13 billion Euros. The Commission-funded Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) has helped to mobilise over 13 billion Euros in loans and 2.3 billion Euros in venture capital, aiding nearly 220.000 European small businesses. more...
 

The European Commission’s online portal offers SMEs information about all EU financial options. more...
 

A guide on access to risk capital is also available online. more... FEE had investigated innovative solutions in its series of Access to Finance Round Tables. more...
 

The European Commission’s Green Paper on the long-term financing of the European economy, which is open for comments by 25 June 2013, puts forward ideas to facilitate SMEs’ access to alternative sources of finance such as dedicated SME markets, securitisation or crowd-funding. more... FEE will respond.
 

SMEs doing business cross-border may have difficulties in claiming outstanding debt - the European Commission has launched a pilot project to support SMEs with guidance and seminars. more...

 

The European Commission's proposed Fourth AML Directive is in the legislative process. more... The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) has called for the Directive’s swift implementation complemented by introducing the obligation to create publically available government registers of the beneficial ownership of companies, trusts, foundations and other similar legal structures. more... The European Council on 22 May 2013 announced that the proposed Directive should be adopted by the end of the year. more... In order to further inform the debate, FEE plans to join forces with Transparency International and organise a parliamentary briefing session in June 2013.
 

In its Private Sector Consultative Forum on 25 - 26 April 2013, where FEE was represented, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) discussed the key aspects of the revised AML framework, in particular the effect of data protection and privacy rules, good practices in identifying beneficial owners and the challenges of the risk-based approach with the aim to issue additional guidance. more...

 

The OECD calls for comments on its Draft Handbook on Transfer Pricing Risk Assessment by 13 September 2013. more... It also published the revised section on safe harbours in the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. more... In the context of addressing tax avoidance, the European Parliament urged the Commission and the Member States to take immediate action and review the current rules. more...
 

In its resolution on the Annual Tax Report: how to free the EU potential for economic growth, the European Parliament recommends that Member States proceed carefully when altering existing taxes and introducing new taxes. It is concerned that the shift towards a more extensive taxation of consumption could lead to social inequalities. Short, medium and long term taxation policy should pay careful attention to all factors (labour, capital, technological progress, resource efficiency and productivity), concerted decision-making is important. more...
 

Within the framework of the EU VAT Forum, several EU Member States have agreed to participate in a test case for private VAT ruling requests relating to cross-border situations, which will start on 1 June 2013. more...

 

The latest version of the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines - G4 - has been launched at the GRI's 2013 Global Conference on 22 May 2013. The G4 Guidelines have increased user-friendliness and accessibility. The emphasis on what is material encourages organisations to provide only information that is critical to their business and stakeholders. more...

 

The proposed revised Professional Qualifications Directive is in the legislative process. more... Indicative plenary sitting date in the European Parliament is 9 September 2013. In this context, the European Commission is organising a workshop on “Regulating access to professions: national perspectives” on 17 June 2013 in Brussels, to which FEE has been invited.

The next meeting of the International Accounting Education Standards Board’s Consultative Advisory Group (IAESB CAG) will be held on 16 and 17 September 2013 in Madrid. FEE will be represented.

 

Are you a practitioner operating in a small- or medium-sized practice (SMP)? If so, make sure your voice is heard by taking the May-June 2013 IFAC SMP Quick Poll. The SMP Quick Poll is intended to take a snapshot of the key issues confronting SMPs and their SME clients. This semi-annual poll should take only three minutes to complete and will close on 21 June 2013. more... To see the results from previous polls please visit IFAC’s website.

 

The IFRS Foundation has published its Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2012, providing an overview of its activities, including audited financial statements. more...

 

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published a Feedback Statement on Disclosure Forum and calls for behavioural change regarding financial information disclosure. more...

 

 

In May 2013, the FEE Board agreed on an action plan for a strategic review, discussed new membership applications, a resolution for Correspondent Membership and the agenda for the next Members’ Assembly. It agreed on the way forward regarding European Public Sector Accounting Standards and gave green light for discussions about the role of accountants providing tax advice. Furthermore, it approved several FEE publications which are featured in the section “Recent FEE Publications”.

 

In May, the Public Sector Working Party proceeded with discussions about European Public Sector Accounting Standards, the Tax Working Parties held a joint meeting providing input on horizontal issues and the Auditing Working Party analysed the developments in Audit Policy.