Today, EFAMA and 22 other European business, financial and professional associations published a joint statement warning that “Europe cannot prosper under the weight of unnecessary complexity”. The statement calls on Member States to agree on the Commission’s Tax Simplification Package without losing its ambition in the negotiations. It argues that Europe’s competitiveness and its ability to create good jobs depend on cutting unnecessary costs and removing barriers to cross-border investment.

The Commission’s original proposal includes an estimated €8 billion a year in compliance savings and introduces, for the first time, an EU law giving pension institutions the right to obtain withholding tax relief at source.

In our response to the Commission’s public consultation in March 2026, EFAMA called for simpler withholding tax relief procedures aligned with the FASTER Directive; targeted anti-abuse rules that safeguard the integrity of the framework without creating unnecessary barriers to relief; and an approach to anti-avoidance rules that reflects the nature of regulated funds as tax-neutral investment vehicles, with taxation taking place at investor level. EFAMA will build on these points in its reply to the current consultation, due by 5 November.