The European Commission has published recommendations regarding how to stop corporations from avoiding tax, although many MEPs feel that the recommendations don’t go far enough and want stricter limits on deductions for interest payments, tougher rules on foreign income, more transparency for trust funds and foundations, common rules for ‘patent box’ tax reductions on intellectual property earnings, and an EU blacklist of tax havens and sanctions against uncooperative jurisdictions. The European Commission proposal are based on the principle that tax should be paid where profits are made and includes legally-binding measures to block the methods most commonly used by companies to avoid paying tax. Measures include: drawing up an exhaustive ‘black list’ of tax havens and countries; prohibiting the use of letterbox companies; introducing of a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB); introducing a common method for calculating the effective corporate tax rate in each member state; and a common European taxpayer identification number (TIN) to serve as a basis for effective automatic exchange of information between member states tax administrations. 11.7.16