Francisco Cabral Matos was quoted by Jornal de Negócios in an article entitled "Minimum corporate income tax directive for multinationals delayed by six months", which analyses the consequences of implementing the European Commission's Directive on a minimum corporate income tax of 15 % to be applied to large multinationals.

With a delay of six months in its adoption, the European Commission issued warnings and granted an extra two months for Portugal, Spain, Poland, Cyprus, Latvia and Lithuania to adopt the necessary measures, at the risk of action before the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In an analysis of the consequences of implementing this Directive, Francisco Cabral Matos highlighted the "disproportion between the complexity of the mechanism and the small effect it is estimated to have on tax revenue". In his opinion, "the most immediate effect will be an increase in tax formalities to be completed and, consequently, in companies' compliance costs".

In addition, the VdA partner anticipated that, in the medium term, there would be an increase in tax litigation, "especially since the Directive is based on a new formula for calculating the tax burden, which departs from the current rules for calculating corporate income tax," he warned.

In the long term, Francisco Cabral Matos believes that the "Directive will lead to a harmonisation of taxation (especially in countries that currently apply a rate of less than 15 percent), because otherwise they could be transferring tax revenue to other member states". Even so, he points out that "this objective could easily be achieved by harmonising the rules on corporate taxation".

• Consult the printed version of the Jornal de Negócios of 20 June. Available here.