The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee approved the text which proposes that corporate taxation should be a compulsory common base to reduce tax shopping and red tape. This amends the Commission's proposal on this matter which indicated that should be applied as a voluntary scheme.

MEPs at the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee approved to make compulsory the use of a common consolidated corporate tax base. According to MEPs, this makes easier for companies to have and keep branches in different EU Member States and it reduces red tape. In March 2011, the Commission proposed this scheme as a voluntary scheme.

The text, which has been approved with 37 votes in favour and 7 against, proposes in particular a "roadmap" to make the common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) system obligatory after a transitional period. The responsible for the report, the Marianne Thyssen MEP, stressed that this harmonised system for calculating the tax base would make possible for companies to consolidate the results of their individual branches, which allows them to compensate for any losses a group member might have.

The roadmap includes a first phase in which the system would only apply to European cooperative companies, which are by nature cross-border. After five years it would apply to all companies with the exception of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which could opt in if they so wished.