Swedish companies in survey: Cross-border losses

Swedish companies in new survey Cross-border losses weaken the Internal Market Eight out of ten Swedish enterprises having activities also in other Member States of the European Union have suffered losses on their cross- border activities on one or several occasions. For 96 percent of these enterprises it has been impossible or only partly possible to set off the losses against income in other Member States. This has often resulted in permanent double taxation effects and has had negative effects on the competitiveness of European businesses. This is shown by a survey among all the member companies of the Federation, having more than 25 employees, in all1086 companies. "The difficulties to set off losses for tax purposes in one Member State against profits in other Member States and other company tax obstacles to cross-border activities within the Union must be removed. Otherwise the Internal Market will never be able to function efficiently as one integrated market", says professor Sven-Olof Lodin who has been responsible for the survey. "The problems of loss-offsets have in business circles since long been considered as a serious obstacle to cross-border activities within the Internal Market. However, we have not had any hard facts on the frequency. Now we have clear evidence of the problems thanks to this survey", professor Lodin continues. If, at the Lisbon summit in April this year, the Heads of States and the Prime Ministers really were serious about their solemn declaration, that the European Union within the next ten years will be developed into the most successful and dynamic economic region of the world, the removal of the tax problems of European loss offsetting and other serious company tax obstacles to cross-border activities within the Union is a necessity. "If the European leaders are not prepared to do that, the Lisbon Declaration will be nothing but empty words and will damage the creditability of the Union", professor Lodin concludes. For further information, please contact Mr Sven-Olof Lodin, phone +46-8-783 84 70, +46-70-594 82 10. Press contact: Lena Nilsson, Press Manager +46-8-783 80 56 More information is available on our website: http:www.industriforbundet.se/english ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/12/19/20001219BIT00390/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/12/19/20001219BIT00390/bit0002.pdf