Miguel Ángel Leal, as Chairman of the TaxiEurope Alliance (TEA), has sent a letter to Mr. Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, in which he expresses TEA’s support to the new European initiative on the taxation of digital companies.

The rationale behind this letter’s drafting is two-fold:

* The letter welcomes the revision of tax rules promoted at the Informal ECOFIN held last Saturday, 16th September.

* It supports the new European Commission’s communication on “A Fair and Efficient Tax System in the EU for the Digital Single Market“.

In the field of urban mobility, more and more business models do not need to be physically present in the member states in which they do business. In line with international tax rules, such companies only must pay taxes in those countries where they are present. This favours tax avoidance practices by new digital operators.

New digital actors resorting to tax avoidance practices are competing unfairly with other traditional urban mobility operators. It is therefore essential to restore equality among them including the fair share of taxes. In order to re-establish the level playing field, the new European initiative on the fair taxation of the Digital Economy entails that digital companies will start paying taxes where they obtain profits.

Taxi Europe Alliance has once again participated in a European institutional debate extremely important for urban mobility. In this sense, one of TEA’s main goals is to stress how the European taxi sector is a public service of general interest, something that must be taken into proper consideration every time a regulatory initiative is taken in view of revising the urban mobility legal framework.

• TEA supports fair taxation of the Digital Economy.