On 29th October, Karl Heinz-Lambertz presented a Resolution and a Report entitled “Fair distribution of taxes in transfrontier areas” adopted by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

RESOLUTION: 

Based on the observation that transfrontier workers tax revenues are not equitably distributed between the country of residence and country of employment, thus resulting in budgetary constraints to finance public services on one side of the border; the Congress notably invites local and regional authorities in border regions, to strengthen their cooperation in this area. Particularly, the Congress calls for:

• promoting co-development as a common goal between the local and regional authorities of places of residence and of places of employment
• places of employment to contribute to the financing of local public services used by transfrontier workers in their places of residence.
• Places of residence to support training of their border population to foster cross-border job opportunities, and to abolish barrier to cross-border mobility
•  further research and data gatheringin this area including the development of common indicators

REPORT: 

The report analyses the taxation systems in place for cross-border workers at the borders of 7 countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein and Switzerland). These countries were selected for the relatively high density of cross-border workers in their border regions. 

The report provides:

• a summary of the existing legislation around taxation rights of countries in Europe
• the eventual pressure points on a country’s budget due to transfrontier work
• an assessment of how the taxation of employment revenue of these individuals is shared between the country of residence and the country of employment by practically analysing 11 borders
• recommendations on how to fairly allocate the tax proceeds from transfrontier workers revenues between the countries.