The European Commission has decided to ask all member states to provide information about their tax rulings to ensure compliance with the EU’s state aid rules.

"We need a full picture of the tax rulings practices in the EU to identify if and where competition in the Single Market is being distorted through selective tax advantages,” EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We will use the information received in today's enquiry as well as the knowledge gained from our ongoing investigations to combat tax avoidance and fight for fair tax competition," Vestager revealed.

The issue of potentially unfair tax rulings emerged during the LuxLeaks scandal, which revealed that major tax avoidance schemes had been in operation in Luxembourg during the term of office as the country’s prime minister (1995-2013) of the current EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The Commission already requested similar information on tax rulings from several EU member states, including Luxembourg, last year.

Now, the Commission will ask all member states to confirm whether they provide tax rulings, and, if they do, to request a list of all companies that had received a tax ruling from 2010 to 2013.

The enquiry is in line with the initiative announced by Juncker on the upcoming legal proposal regarding the automatic exchange of information on tax rulings.

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