The burden of tax paperwork in the European Union: 8.6 billion

The Expansión article analyzes an unprecedented joint statement signed by 23 of the most influential business, financial, and professional organizations in the European Union. This lobbying group, representing a broad spectrum of the continental economy, has raised its voice to denounce the excessive “fiscal red tape” choking European companies, calling it a critical drag on the bloc’s competitiveness in an increasingly aggressive global market. The central figure of the complaint is the 8.6 billion euros in potential annual savings that the European Commission itself has identified in its administrative simplification plans. According to the Commission’s 2026 Work Programme and recent simplification reports, implementing six omnibus legislative packages would significantly reduce compliance costs for businesses and citizens. However, the 23 signatory organizations warn that these savings will only materialize if there is real political will to accelerate the adoption of these measures and simplify key regulations in critical areas such as VAT in the Digital Era (ViDA), the BEFIT framework for corporate tax on performance, and the FASTER tax withholding procedures. The manifesto emphasizes that the current administrative burden is not only a direct financial cost, but also diverts valuable resources that firms, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), could devote to innovation, the green transition, and productive investment. The Commission has set itself the ambitious goal of reducing administrative burdens by 25% overall and by 35% for SMEs, which would amount to an estimated total long-term saving of 37.5 billion euros. The 8.6 billion mentioned represents the first phase of this plan, focused on proposals already presented or on immediate approval pathways. The organizations insist that the fragmentation of the EU’s tax system is one of the main barriers to the full functioning of the Single Market. Citing recent reports on competitiveness, such as the one prepared by Mario Draghi, the article highlights that internal regulatory barriers have a negative impact comparable to trade tariffs, making Europe less attractive compared with competitors such as the United States or China. The article details how the fragmentation of tax rules forces cross-border operators to face a tangle of divergent forms, deadlines, and information requirements among the 27 Member States. This situation is particularly onerous in the digital taxation and services sphere, where the lack of harmonization creates legal uncertainty that hampers the international expansion of European startups. The 23 organizations stress that the EU cannot afford to maintain obsolete bureaucratic structures. It is also highlighted that the digitalization of tax administration has often been implemented in a disjointed manner, adding new layers of electronic reporting obligations without eliminating the old ones. The joint statement advocates a “digital by default” approach and the reuse of data by authorities to prevent businesses from having to supply the same information multiple times. The backing of these entities exerts significant political pressure on the European Commission and national governments to make competitiveness the absolute priority of the legislature.