Costa, who is brokering budget talks, is pressuring leaders to reach a budget deal among themselves by the end of the year — before elections in Poland, France and Italy threaten to derail the negotiations.
Yet after more than a year of haggling, EU governments are still at odds over five proposed new taxes that the Commission estimates would generate €65 billion per year.
Among the options on the table, a corporate tax known as CORE — which charges a lump sum on companies’ revenues exceeding €100 million — has emerged as the most unpopular option and is particularly toxic in Germany.
To break the deadlock, French President Emmanuel Macron supported funneling part of the tax on multinationals to the EU budget during a leaders’ summit in October, said two of the diplomats. They were granted anonymity, like others, to discuss the sensitive plans.
Supporters argue that this idea could garner more political support than CORE as it targets companies’ profits as opposed to their revenue.
“The corporate income tax is about taxing companies based on their profitability. CORE is not about that, CORE is about taking a toll blindly,” said Pascal Saint-Amans, a former OECD official and one of the architects of the global tax arrangement.