Unleashing the
economic power of the EU’s Single Market and boosting Europe’s competitiveness
and innovation capacity requires a fresh look at the immense administrative and
regulatory burdens that have been created over the past decades. This also has
a tax dimension, and – as Wopke Hoekstra, the Commissioner responsible for
taxation – has recently put it: ‘Decluttering is of the essence’. Indeed, in a
post-Pillar Two tax environment, many existing tax measures may have lost their
relevance or even be duplicative. Moreover, perhaps the time has come to
consider broad common rules for European companies: While this would not be
‘decluttering’ of EU tax law itself, the creation of common regimes that
replace the Member States’ rules would ideally be a ‘one in, twenty-seven out’
approach.