With almost 30 years of working at the European Commission, it’s fair to say that Benjamin Angel is a prominent figure in tax.
He started as an administrator at the Commission after having graduated from the well-known business school at HEC Paris. Today, Angel is the director of direct taxation, tax coordination, economic analysis and evaluation at the Commission.
He oversees numerous policy issues that relate to direct taxation including the OECD/G20 discussions.
Most notably, Angel has worked on EU tax reforms such as the Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation (BEFIT), the common consolidated corporate tax base, and public country-by-country reporting (CbCR) requirements.
In October 2021, he supported a fast-tracked OECD agreement with the EU to complement the tax transparency agenda.
While the Commission has always supported the endorsement of a global minimum tax of 15%, the process has not been that easy. A year later, the debate is still open.
On BEFIT, Angel said in October 2022 that the tax measure would consolidate profits of EU corporate groups into one tax base. He claimed it would simplify compliance and boost investment.
Angel has also warned jurisdictions over their lack of tax transparency this year, stating that a failure to adopt CbCR could place them on the EU tax haven grey list.
Countries such as Romania have since announced the planned implementation of the public CbCR requirement.
Perhaps more tax transparency in the EU is on the agenda for next year.
