The use of fiscal incentives to boost innovation 15-16 April 2002, Brussels
Recent benchmarking exercises of the European Commission indicate that business R&D is a weak point in most Member States and in Europe as a whole. Fiscal policy is an important policy instrument to stimulate R&D expenditure, however it is also a complex policy area, with different types of tax incentives closely related to the fiscal, administrative and economic structures of each country. The workshop served therefore as a trans-national platform for policy makers to review the specific policy tools at hand, and to compare these with direct support measures.
By looking at concrete examples of fiscal schemes in place in those Member States choosing to support innovation through indirect, or fiscal incentives (including their characteristics, rationale, objectives, associated difficulties etc.), as well as presenting examples of Member States choosing to employ other forms of support, the workshop allowed policy makers to understand the parameters which need to be taken into account for choosing between these alternative forms of support to R&D and innovation. Participants to the workshop included high-level ministerial representatives, fiscal experts from a number of EU Member States, accession and association countries, Commission service representatives, and other selected stakeholders from the fiscal and industrial arenas.
Information available for this workshop :
- List of participants
- Agenda
- Background paper : DG Enterprise study - Corporation tax and Innovation : issues at stake and review of EU experience in the nineties
- Workshop presentations
- Results of the DG Enterprise Study Corporation tax and innovation and annex Mr De Arístegui, co-author of the study file
- Report from the R&D Working Group of the Economic Policy Committee: Review of Economic incentives to business R+D and annex Ms Michaela Dodini, DG Economic and Financial Affairs
- Community Framework on State Aid for R&D - current situation and perspectives Ms. Renate Repplinger-Hach, DG Competition
- Community strategy on taxation Mr Juan Lopez-Rodriguez, DG Taxation
- Fiscal incentives from the viewpoint of an industrialist and annex Mr. Jan Van den Biesen, Philips
- The welfare effects of fiscal measures to boost innovation Mr. Claes Bengtsson
- Some good reasons to abandon R&D tax credits: the case of Finland Mr. Hannu Kemppainen, TEKES
- Innovation as the explicit target of Spanish tax incentives and annex Ms Rosa Maria Sanchez-Yebra, Advisor to the Minister of Finance, Spain
- UK: Some good reasons to introduce R&D tax credits: the case of the UK Mr. Tony Pedrotti, DTI
- Germany: Why does Germany prefer direct support measures? and annex Mr. Thomas Multhaup, Federal Minstry of Economics and Technology
- France: The efficiency of the crédits recherche instrument and how it evolved Mr. Frédéric Cherbonnier, Ministry of Economy and Finance
- The Netherlands: Promoting business R&D by fiscal incentives for R&D personnel Mrs Anja Hezemans, Ministry of Economic Affairs
- Norway: Why did Norway decide to introduce R&D tax incentives? Prof. Arild Hervik, Norwegian government commission on fiscal incentives to R&D
- Portugal: The role of fiscal incentives in an integrated modernisation policy Prof. Rui Santos, Ministry of Science and Technology
- Improving effectiveness of support mechanisms for Research Mr Sean O’Reagain, European Commission, DG Research
- Conclusions
- 197 reads
