Euro 2000 – Winners and Losers

The year 2000 has witnessed numerous changes in taxation throughout Europe, considered here by Stephen Weston and Mark Johnson .

Stephen Weston and Mark Johnson of Arthur Andersen

The proverbial tax football has certainly been kicked around this year. Anybody with an interest in tax would be forgiven for feeling that the changes the UK has seen over the last year were enough to deal with: onshore pooling; world-wide groups; proposals on intellectual property and rollover relief for shares; as well as the proposed consolidation of forex, financial instruments and loan relationships. However, it would seem that Mr Brown was not alone in being gripped by Millennium fever, as finance ministers across the EU have been busy issuing statements, leaving many involved with cross-border tax baffled by a myriad of proposals, amendments and deferrals. To make matters worse, few of these changes are in any way a step towards the simplified, harmonised tax system that a happily unified Europe is supposedly striving towards.