On 7 November 2019, the Finnish Ministry of Finance published a proposal to introduce a corporate exit tax, largely based on the EU’s Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive. The purpose of the EU exit tax is to prevent companies from avoiding tax on gains on assets such as intellectual property which are transferred from the territory of a Member State, normally to a lower taxable area, and will enable that member state to tax the value of the product before the assets are shifted elsewhere.
Under the proposal, the exit tax will apply in the situations where
- a taxpayer transfers assets from its head office to its permanent establishment in another Member State or in a third country, provided that the Member State of the head office is no longer entitled to tax the assets transferred as a result of the transfer,
- a taxpayer transfers assets from its permanent establishment in a member state to its head office or another permanent establishment in another member state or in a third country, provided that the Member State of the permanent establishment is no longer entitled to tax the transferred assets as a result of the transfer,
- a taxpayer transfers his tax residence to another Member State or to a third country, with the exception of assets which continue to be linked to a permanent establishment in the first Member State; and
- a taxpayer transfers the activity carried out by his permanent establishment from one Member State to another or to a third country, provided that the Member State of the permanent establishment is no longer entitled to tax the transferred assets for transfer.
The Ministry of Finance held a consultation on the proposals from June 14, 2019, until August 8, 2019, and the measures are intended to enter into force on January 1, 2020.
