APPLICATION OF THE CCCTB AND SAFE HARBOURS TO EUROPEAN SMES: CAN THE DECREASE IN COMPLIANCE COSTS SUPPORT BETTER SME PERFORMANCE?

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are facing internal markets with higher taxation and transfer price compliance costs as well as cross-border loss compensation problems. With respect to the taxation (transfer pricing) compliance costs that are borne by SMEs, the possible solutions for decreasing those costs were suggested to be safe harbours and common (consolidated) corporate tax bases. This paper includes an evaluation of the suggested approaches and their impacts on the SMEs’ economic performance. In addition, this evaluation accounts for the selected economic variables that are classified by industry and firm size, assuming decreased compliance costs of taxation and the fulfilment of the long-term goals of the EU2020 agenda, such as smart and inclusive growth in the EU. Based on the results, it can be concluded that safe harbours and the CCCTB system are able to improve SMEs’ performance. The most important economic variables supporting the increase in business performance are current assets, value added, enterprise value and, finally, operating revenues. In researched countries, the highest impact on the business performance would result from the created added value.