EU Lawmakers Vote to Revive Talks on Equity Tax Allowance Plan

European Union countries should restart work on a stalled plan that would equalize the tax treatment of debt and equity for corporate financing, according to a vote in the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee Tuesday.

Committee lawmakers voted 35-8, with nine abstentions, for a nonbinding opinion backing the plan to create a debt-equity bias reduction allowance, or DEBRA, which was proposed by the European Commission, the EU’s executive, in May 2022.

• DEBRA would allow tax deductibility of equity costs, similar to how interest costs on loans are treated. Currently, all but six EU countries provide no tax ...