What future for taxation in the EU?

Abstract

The 11th EUROFRAME Conference on economic policy issues in the European Union was held in Paris on 6 June 2014. The aim of the conference is to provide an economic forum for debate on economic policy issues relevant in the European context. In June 2014 the Conference topic was: “What future for taxation in the EU?”. The programme and conference papers are available at the EUROFRAME Conference webpage: www.euroframe.org. Six of the papers given at the Conference are released in this issue of the Revue de l’OFCE. European economies have high taxation levels, which allow financing the European Social Model,characterised by a high level of public and social spending. In 2012, the tax-to-GDP ratio was 39.4% for the whole EU, 40.4% for the euro area, as compared to 39.4% for Japan and 24.5% for the US. There are however wide disparities within the area. The tax-to-GDP ratio is higher than 45% in Denmark, Belgium and France, and ranges between 45% and 40% in Sweden, Finland, Italy and Austria. But it is below 35% in Greece, Spain, Poland, and Portugal; 30% in Slovakia, Ireland, Romania, and Bulgaria. There was no trend in the tax-to-GDP ratio developments at the EU level over the last 20 years.