In sum, the EU “federal” corporate tax should be thought of as a benefit tax, based on a broad measure of activity, applied at a moderate rate, and unrelated to current returns; nor should it be deductible from other taxes. Among the various options under consideration, the value-added tax base – perhaps averaged over a number of years – looks best, since the accounting and tax-assessment infrastructures already exist.
总之，欧盟的“联邦”公司税应该被看作是一种福利税，它以对广泛的经营行为的度量为基础，采用适中的税率，不与当前收益挂钩；它也不应该从其他税收中扣除。在考虑中的各种不同方案里，增值税基—可能在过去若干年里表现平平—似乎是最佳方案。因为它的会计和税收评估基本框架已经到位了。