EUROPE - The EFRP proposal for a pan-European pension vehicle – the European Institute for Occupational Retirement Provision (EIORP), did not get through the ECOFIN council meeting last week, tax expert Peter Schonewille said today (Oct 22) at the EFRP/NAPF International conference in Brussels.

“This was despite the active support for the proposal by the Commission by putting them in its communication on tax,” he noted.

However, he added that this did not mean that all the work of the EFRP in this direction was wasted.
“You should continue to work on it and put more detail in the proposal,” he said.

In addition, he advised that the private project, whereby some countries would pioneer the concept should be progressed.
Looking at the approach of the communication, Schonewille declared ‘Bachmann’ to be dead.
He pointed out that Bachmann had meant that the cross-border tax deduction of pension contributions was not permitted for the EIORP in the court of justice ruling.
“At the commission we think you can now got to your national court with the communication and obtain a ruling in your favour.”

He understood that there were still some cases not yet in the public domain in the pensions taxation area.
But he mentioned the case of Rolf Dieter Danner, a German who moved to Finland but who wanted to continue his German pensions arrangement.
“We hope that the judges in Luxembourg rule favourably in this case.”

The case is now due to be heard on December 6.

Schonewille declared: “The European Commission is depending on you – you can make the single market a better place. You can take cases to court, you can use the EC communication to help us do our job,” he added.




Topics