The European Commission will carry out a thorough assessment of national direct taxes to determine whether they create unfair disadvantages for workers that live in one Member State and work in another. More than 1.2 million people work cross-border in the EU and gross wages paid to cross-border and seasonal workers in 2010 amounted to €46.9 billion.

The European Commission announced its intention to scrutinise Member States' tax provisions to ensure that they do not discriminate against cross-border workers. If during such evaluation that will be carry out in 2012, discrimination or breaches of the EU's fundamental freedoms are found, the Commission will flag them to the national authorities and insist that the necessary amendments are made. The Commission will take infringement procedures against the Member States in question if the problems persist after the communication. Already in 2010, the Commission published a Communication to act against double taxation and other cross-border fiscal barriers.

A fundamental right for European citizens and a key instrument for developing a Europe-wide job market is the right to live and work anywhere in the EU. For this reason, the Commission will assess in particular whether citizens who earn most of their income in another Member State are taxed more heavily than the citizens of that same Member State. In this context, the Commission checks that all the personal and family deductions available to residents are in practice also available to these non-residents. Also, whether Member States differentiate between their own citizens and citizens from other Member States who occasionally work in their territory, particularly as regards the right to deduct expenses and the application of different tax rates.

The Commission is currently working to support Member States in designing policies to address legal and administrative obstacles to working mobility but also ensure that cross-border workers are not treated differently from national workers and they shall enjoy the same social and tax advantages as national workers.