Selectivity in State Aid Law and the Methods for the Allocation of the Corporate Tax Base


Book Description

High profile cases before the European Commission and the EU courts have intensified scrutiny of the link between State aid law and the taxation of multinational enterprises. Certain decisions have raised questions about fiscal sovereignty and the interpretation of the rules on State aid – in particular the notion of selectivity, which have not been addressed in detail by existing research. The combination of the evolution of the notion of selectivity in State aid law, on the one hand, and the need to adapt the rules for the taxation of the profits of multinational enterprises to the modern economy, on the other hand, makes it necessary to assess whether existing as well as alternative rules for the allocation of the corporate tax base might entail a selective treatment. This book responds to the need of research in the area of State aid law applied to the taxation of the income of multinational enterprises, focusing on the crucial concept of selectivity. The analysis proceeds with a detailed investigation of the theoretical issues that arise when applying the selectivity test in State aid law to three methods for the allocation of the corporate tax base between the members of multinational enterprises: – the arm’s length principle; – transfer pricing safe harbours; and – systems of formula apportionment. This research project is conducted at a theoretical level, without considering national provisions or particular tax treaties. The author suggests an analytical framework on the application of the selectivity test to the three allocation methods. It is concluded that these methods are likely to have certain selective features, with varying possibilities to be justified by the inner logic of a corporate income tax system. It is also demonstrated that selectivity occurs for different reasons, due to the different rationales of the three allocation methods. This book is intended at contributing to the academic literature on the impact of State aid law on the principles for the taxation of the income of multinational enterprises. The outcome of this research project is also relevant for lawmakers who need to reconcile the imperatives of State aid law with the design of rules that match their tax policies, as well as for judges or lawyers who apply the rules on State aid to tax provisions.




Fiscal State Aid Law and Harmful Tax Competition in the Euro


Book Description

The intersection between fiscal state aid and taxation has become more topical than ever. Mounting financial crises have left EU Member States scrambling to increase their tax revenue, balance their budgets, and attract capital. Taking advantage of these trends, multinational enterprises have lobbied for favourable tax arrangements, raising questions about the breadth of control the Commission can and should practise. To address egregious instances of favourable taxation, the Commission has tried to simultaneously use soft law and deploy Treaty rules on state aid. Fiscal State Aid Law and Harmful Tax Competition in the EU examines the use of state aid rules against national tax measures. Kyriazis's book presents a targeted investigation of these measures in two parts. The first part addresses Commission decisions and ECJ judgments of the early 2000s, which the author calls the "first wave". The second part consists of all the recent Commission decisions and investigations into tax schemes and individual tax rulings, most notably the Apple, Fiat, Starbucks, and Amazon investigations, which Kyriazis labels the "second wave". The characteristics and common threads of each wave are set out, their similarities and differences dissected, and their nexus to the EU's fight against harmful tax competition explored. Containing a thorough analysis of the legal concept of fiscal state aid under Article 107(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, this book will be of interest to scholars of European and International Tax law and practitioners working in the field of European competition law.




The Role of State Aid in the European Fiscal Integration


Book Description

This book analyzes the issue of European fiscal State aid in order to provide insights into the related evolution prospects and legal problems. State aid has assumed a central position in the field of taxation, becoming the most important instrument of European legal integration, especially in the area of direct taxes. This is the result of major regulatory and interpretative development, which has altered the initial European and national balances in the face of globalization and the problems of the new economy. In this context, the scope and objectives of State aid have progressively broadened, encompassing a significant level of both positive and negative integration of European national tax systems.




Corporate Taxation, Group Debt Funding and Base Erosion


Book Description

The EU’s Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD), implemented in January 2019, confronts Member States with complex challenges, particularly via the introduction of an interest limitation rule. This timely book, the first in-depth analysis of the features and implications of the directive, provides insightful and practical discussions by experts from around Europe on the crucial interactions of the ATAD with other existing anti-tax avoidance measures, the European financial sector and the fundamental freedoms. Specific issues and topics covered include the following: relation with the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Sharing project (BEPS) and the EU’s Common Corporate Tax Base initiative; technical subjects relating to corporate taxation and debt funding; problems caused by the diametrically opposite tax treatment of debt and equity within a group of companies; exclusion clauses for interest expenses; and interplay between interest limitation rules and anti-hybrid rules. A comparative analysis of implementation issues in four leading Member States—Germany, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands—as well as a global general survey with regard to interest limitation rules allow readers to assess the particular complexities associated to the implementation of the ATAD. This matchless commentary by leading European tax law academics and practitioners on an important and much-debated item of EU legislation gives practitioners, enterprises and tax authorities an early opportunity to understand the practical effects of the directive in the various Member States.




New Perspectives on Fiscal State Aid


Book Description

New Perspectives on Fiscal State Aid Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Fiscal State Aid Control Edited by Carla De Pietro Based on a project co-funded by the European Commission, this book focuses on fiscal state aid – an increasingly important topic – with a number of high-profile cases ongoing and with serious implications for sustainable growth and the future of the internal market. The project, conducted by four universities, consisted in seminars, workshops and a final conference aimed at training national tax judges from the four different countries involved (Austria, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands), with discussion and reflection by international academics and other tax professionals who participated as speakers and/or discussants. This book presents an in-depth analysis of the topics the project dealt with, taking a giant step towards defining the connection between effective state aid control, its legitimacy and a desirable functioning of the internal market for the twenty-first century. The core elements of this fundamental analysis include the following: selectivity as applied in the case law of the Court of Justice; whether and to what extent state aid law limits European Union (EU) Member States in designing anti-tax avoidance measures; protection of legitimate expectations; to what extent national judges are required to apply state aid rules ex officio; powers of national judges in connection with the national obligation of guaranteeing an immediate and effective recovery on the basis of an order issued by the European Commission; and connection between legitimacy of state aid law and effectiveness of state aid control. The book includes a thorough investigation of the notion of fiscal state aid, also by focusing on the most recent decisions of the European Commission concerning mismatches. Representing, as it does, an important and concrete contribution to the intense debate about the interpretation of the notion of fiscal state aid, with different normative views about the goals and functions of control, this book will stimulate solutions in terms of legitimacy of fiscal state aid control that also take into consideration the most desirable functioning of the internal market. It will be welcomed not only by academics in taxation and EU law but also by national tax judges, tax authorities and practitioners.




Research Handbook on European State Aid Law


Book Description

This revised and updated Research Handbook on European State Aid Law brings together established academics and practitioners to provide a wide-ranging coverage of the field. Incorporating political science, economics and the law in its analysis, it provides a strong overview of the salient issues in State aid law and policy.




Fundamentals of Transfer Pricing


Book Description

This is Part Two of a crucially significant two-volume set on the nature of transfer pricing that fully elucidates how the growing body of applicable rules works in practice. The preceding volume, subtitled General Topics and Specific Transactions, focused on basic principles and specialized topics. This volume enlarges the scope of the first volume, particularly concerning industry specifics, regional considerations, the use of new technologies, and the intersection between transfer pricing rules and other disciplines. As in the first volume, stakeholding contributors from government, multinational companies, international organizations, advisory groups, and academia offer deeply informed perspectives, both general and specific, on the practical application of transfer pricing rules. With numerous examples and relevant international judicial precedents, the authors augment the first volume in such ways as the following: extended analysis of particular business sectors, including automotive, banking, consumer goods, insurance, IT, oil and gas, and pharmaceutics; specific jurisdictional coverage of the United States, the European Union, Brazil, China, and India; detailed presentation of the use of new technologies by both taxpayers and tax authorities; and further in-depth analysis of transfer pricing’s interaction with various fields of law. With this authoritative source of practical guidance, advisors, in-house practitioners, government officials, and academics worldwide will have all the details they need to move forward in tackling the complex aspects of the current transfer pricing environment.




European VAT and the Sharing Economy


Book Description

A breadth of new digital platforms has dramatically expanded the range of possibilities for exchanging anything required by business or personal needs from accommodation to rides. In the virtual marketplaces shaped and ruled by these novel matchmakers, rather than by a single centralized entity, value is created through the granular interaction of many dispersed individuals. By allowing instantaneous and smooth interaction among millions of individuals, platforms have indeed pushed the digital frontier farther and farther, so as to include within it even services once not capable of direct delivery from a remote location such as accommodation and passenger transport. Legal disruption is also underway with foundational dichotomous categories, such as those between suppliers and customers, business and private spheres, employees and self-employed, no longer viable as organizational legal structures. This is the essential background of the first book to relate what is synthetically captured under the umbrella definition of ‘sharing economy’ to key features at the core of European Value Added Tax (EU VAT) and to look at the feasibility of a reformed EU VAT system capable of addressing the main challenges posed by these new models of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Specifically, the study analyses five legal propositions underpinning the current EU VAT system as the following: taxable persons; taxable transactions; composite supplies; place of supply rules; and liability regimes for collection and remittance of VAT. Exploration of these five legal propositions is meant to assess the practical feasibility of shoehorning the main sharing economy business models – notably, those available in the accommodation and passenger transport sectors – into the framework of existing EU VAT provisions. The author further draws on the normative standards of equality, neutrality, simplicity, flexibility and proportionality to test the ‘reflexes’ of the current EU VAT system in the sharing economy domain. Opportunities for reform of the current EU VAT system are in turn evaluated with each chapter including cogent proposals in the form of incremental and targeted amendments to the current EU VAT provisions. As the first comprehensive analysis of the treatment of the sharing economy for VAT purposes, the book provides not only a theoretical framework for future studies in the tax field but also indispensable practical guidance for VAT specialists confronting daily with the many challenges ushered in by the sharing economy. Moreover, the various solutions and recommendations advanced in the book offer valuable insights to international and national policymakers dealing with similar issues under other VAT systems.




Sales Promotion Techniques and VAT in the EU


Book Description

Sales promotion techniques, or SPTs, are a common facet of consumer life, with many companies offering price reductions, bonuses, or other deals in order to attract or retain customers. Although VAT on advertising costs is in principle fully deductible, problems frequently arise when products are supplied as part of a sales promotion. This book provides the first in-depth investigation of the extent to which the current VAT treatment in the EU of the various SPTs corresponds to the core properties of the VAT, with particular attention to the so-called neutrality principle. With nuanced precision, the author catalogs the SPTs commonly used in practice. Then, revealing serious inconsistencies among the relevant rulings of the European Court of Justice, she goes on to propose specific amendments to the VAT Directive. Focusing on the importance for VAT of determining the presence of an SPT, she thoroughly analyzes such aspects of the VAT–SPT relationship as the following: What are the key considerations for effectively determining whether the supply of a benefit upon fulfillment of a certain condition by a customer constitutes an SPT or a barter? To what extent are the VAT consequences of the use of SPTs compliant with the principle of neutrality? What distinguishes the VAT treatment of an SPT whereby a sales promotor both finances and supplies a benefit from that of an SPT whereby a sales promotor finances but does not himself supply a benefit? What legislative changes can be made in order to reach a more ideal and clear VAT treatment of SPTs in the EU? Not only considering the principle of neutrality, but also the other key features and principles of EU VAT. The research is conducted mainly through a review of European legislation, policy documents, and CJEU case law and the Belgian interpretation thereof. Where room is left for different interpretations, some viewpoints of EU VAT in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as well as in the corresponding system of New Zealand, are considered. With the finely tuned analysis presented in this book, practitioners can ensure an appropriate argumentation on the VAT treatment of SPTs with national tax authorities or before courts. As the first overall study on the VAT treatment of SPTs, clearly discussing the issues and legislative gaps and making concrete suggestions for future legislation, it is sure to be welcomed also by academics and EU policymakers.




Cooperative Compliance


Book Description

National taxation authorities around the world are rapidly improving international cooperation, given the unprecedented triple impact of persistent revelations of large-scale corporate tax avoidance, the ever-increasing intricacies of digital cross-border transactions, and the unprecedented revenue deficits engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also a growing recognition that improving tax compliance needs to be reconciled with a legitimate desire on the part of businesses to have some certainty about their taxes. Cooperative compliance is one way to achieve that. This first analysis of the details of cooperative compliance programmes currently in operation describes tax control frameworks, suggests practical examples to assist practitioners in tax administrations and the private sector, and provides multiple perspectives on the design and legitimacy of such programmes. Drawing on detailed information contributed by tax practitioners and academics from a wide range of jurisdictions worldwide, the book identifies and explains certain crucial elements of successful programmes: the criteria for access to cooperative compliance (e.g., is the programme voluntary or mandatory? Is there a financial threshold? Will the criteria be publicly available?); model legislation that can facilitate the operation of such programmes (statutory provisions, administrative rules and procedures, etc.); the foundations for an international agreement on an audit assurance standard for tax control frameworks (including the role of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Union (EU), and other international organizations); how to develop a methodology to measure the cost and benefits of cooperative compliance programmes; detailed case studies of existing compliance programmes in Australia, Austria, China, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Russia; and how to communicate a cooperative compliance programme to obtain trust from society. The analysis draws on two years of work led by WU Global Tax Policy Center (GTPC) at Vienna University of Economics and Business in cooperation with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA). The project brought together over two hundred people from 25 countries, including public officials, businesses, and academics. Tax certainty and predictability are key components for providing a tax environment that is conducive to cross-border trade and investment, and, in the long term, it is in the interest of both governments and businesses to minimize tax uncertainty as much as possible. This truly helpful book promises to pave the way to an internationally effective tax framework that will be welcomed by taxation authorities and practitioners worldwide.