BRUSSELS (Reuters), – By the end of this year, new legislative proposals will be presented by the European Commission to address tax avoidance.

Following reports this week about a significant leak of tax information, collectively called the “Pandora OTC: Papers”, the EU parliament added the tax topic to their plenary sessions. This revealed how powerful and wealthy continue to use offshore corporations to cut down on their taxes.

While tax optimization doesn’t necessarily include illicit activities, it is becoming more questionable how low the tax payments of the wealthy through tax advisors can be, particularly as the world struggles with economic recovery from the COVID-19 epidemic.

Gentiloni informed lawmakers that the Commission will continue to fight tax evasion, avoidance, and that it will introduce new rules that expand the data that must be automatically shared among tax authorities.

He stated that the Commission would submit proposals to address the tax misuse of shell corporations by year’s end. This proposal was already on the Commission’s preliminary agenda for some time, and publication is scheduled for December 22. He didn’t give any details.

Gentiloni said that new EU rules would be proposed by the executive “on publication of tax rates effective paid multinationals”.

Responding to criticisms by lawmakers that the EU had reduced to nine the blacklist of tax-havens jurisdictions within days of the Pandora Papers, Gentiloni stated that the list was successful but suggested there might be an opportunity to reconsider the criteria.

The criteria allow for the exclusion from nearly every major tax haven, even within the EU, at the moment.