by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

19 March 2018

The number of advance pricing agreements between EU member states and companies rose by 64 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to research by Eurodad.

Eurodad, a coalition of non-government organizations, said that the number of unilateral agreements in place in EU countries increased from 1,252 at the end of 2015 to 2,053 at the end of 2016. In 2014, there were 804 APAs in place, while in 2013 there were just 399.

EU member states (with the exception of the Netherlands) report to the European Commission the number of APAs that are currently in force in their countries.

Eurodad said that Belgium had the most APAs in place in 2016 (1,081), followed by Luxembourg (599). Italy, third on the list, had substantially fewer APAs in place (73), followed closely by Hungary (63), and the Czech Republic (54).

The following member states had reported to the Commission that they did not have any unilateral APAs in force in 2016: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Malta, Slovenia, and Sweden.

Belgium recorded the highest increase in the number of APAs in force, from 157 in 2014, to 396 in 2015, and 1,081 in 2016. The number of APAs in Luxembourg rose from 347 in 2014, to 519 in 2015, and 599 in 2016.

According to Eurodad, the majority of unilateral APAs in force in the EU concern only other EU member states. However, roughly 25 percent also concern non-EU countries.

Eurodad (the European Network on Debt and Development) is a network of civil society organizations from 19 European countries.