The European Commission has begun two public consultations, on discriminatory tax rules that my affect the position of individuals in European Union (EU) member states. These consultations are aim to help efforts to take away tax obstacles to cross-border economic activities of individuals inside the EU. The consultations will run to 3 July 2014.

An estimated 14.1 million EU citizens – around 2.8 percent of the total EU population – are living in an EU member state that is not their own native country. Almost 30 percent of people in the EU buy goods from enterprise based in other EU states, many of these being online transactions.

The first consultation looks at tax problems faced by these individuals and will be looking at the measures currently in place to encourage tax compliance by these individuals. The consultation covers questions about the problems encountered by individuals who are employed or are investing other EU countries and how tax measures affect them.

The other consultation looks at the issue of inheritance taxation. Double inheritance taxation of an individual’s estate is still common in the EU, because the assets are taxed in the country of residence or domicile of the individual and in the country of location of the assets or the country where the heirs or legatees live. In December 2011 the European Commission published recommendations on measures that should be taken by member states to offer relief from double inheritance taxation. The Commission is now looking at what has been done about the issues by the member states, and if the problems still exist action could be taken at EU level.