The European Commission has required Belgium and France to abolish the corporate tax exemptions granted to their ports, so as to align their tax regime with EU state aid rules. Profits by port operators must be taxed under normal national corporate tax laws to avoid distortions of competition.
The Commission has also requested information from and continues to assess the functioning and taxation of ports in Member States to ensure fair competition in the EU port sector.
The Commission considers that the corporate tax exemptions granted to Belgian and French ports provide them with a selective advantage, in breach of EU state aid rules. In particular, the tax exemptions do not pursue a clear objective of public interest, such as the promotion of mobility or multimodal transport. The tax savings generated can be used by the port operators to fund any type of activity or to subsidise the prices charged by the ports to customers, to the detriment of competitors and fair competition.
The two Commission decisions make clear that if port operators generate profits from economic activities these should be taxed under the normal national tax laws to avoid distortions of competition.
Belgium and France now have until the end of 2017 to take the necessary steps to remove the tax exemption in order to ensure that, from 1 January 2018, all ports are subject to the same corporate taxation rules as other companies.
Since the corporate tax exemption for ports already existed before the accession of France and Belgium to the EU, these measures are considered as "existing aid" and the Commission cannot ask Belgium and France to recover the aid already granted.
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