Combating Tax Avoidance in the EU


Book Description

Following each Member State's need to rebuild a strong and stable economy after the 2007 financial crisis, the European Union (EU) has developed a robust new transparency framework with binding anti-abuse measures and stronger instruments to challenge external threats of base erosion. This is the first and only book to provide a complete detailed analysis of the Anti-Tax Avoidance Package and other recent and ongoing European actions taken in direct taxation. With contributions from both prominent tax academics and Spain's delegates to the European meetings where these rules are debated and promulgated, the book covers such issues and topics as the following: – the development of the EU Strategy towards Aggressive Tax Planning; – recent tax-related jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice; – the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive; – tax treaties and non-tax treaties with tax consequences both between Member States and between Member States and third countries; – code of conduct for business taxation; – automatic exchange of information; – country-by-country reporting; – arbitration in tax matters; – external strategy for effective taxation regarding non-EU countries; – competition and state aid developments in direct taxation; – the Common Consolidated Tax Base; and – digital significant presence and permanent establishment. As the EU pursues its ambitious tax agenda, taxation's contribution to EU growth and competitiveness and its part in relations with the rest of the world will come into ever clearer focus. In addition to its insights into these trends, the book's unparalleled practical information and analysis will be of great value to tax practitioners dealing with investment analysis, tax planning schemes, and other features of the current international tax landscape.




A Guide to the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive


Book Description

This book provides a concise, practical guide to the European Union’s Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD). Presenting unique insights into the ATAD’s five specific anti-avoidance rules, its chapters explain the background of those rules, the directive’s interactions with relevant jurisprudence, and the challenges posed to the ATAD’s interpretation and implementation in domestic law.




European Tax Law


Book Description

Although a genuine European tax hardly exists as such, the EC policy of aligning national taxes and tax policies insofar as is necessary for a common market affects taxation and tax law in all Member States. European Tax Law systematically surveys the EC tax rules that arise from this policy and their implications. It provides a detailed discussion of European integration and Community tax harmonisation policy, with practical analysis of all the relevant Community tax rules, in force and pending. The book's clear, straightforward coverage includes: tax measures already taken at the Community level and their legal basis; the current state of positive harmonisation as manifested in EC regulations and directives; the effect of 'negative integration' (such as prohibition of discrimination) that limits Member States' freedom to arrange their own national tax systems; the surprising effect of national habits and couleur locale ; and the consequences of general (non-fiscal) Community law for national tax laws as it emerges in the case law of the European Court of Justice. European Tax Law includes an extensive index and a table of cases for easy access to information. Practitioners, academics, and advanced students of tax law and EC law will value the lucid, ordered, and comprehensive coverage of this resource.




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.




European Union Corporate Tax Law


Book Description

How does EU law affect Member State corporate tax systems and the cross-border activities of companies? This unique study traces the historical development of EU corporate tax law and provides an in-depth analysis of a number of issues affecting companies, groups of companies and permanent establishments. Existing legislation, soft-law and the case-law of the Court of Justice are examined. The proposed CCCTB Directive and its potential application through enhanced co-operation are also considered. In addition to the tax issues pertaining to direct investment, the author examines the taxation of passive investment income, corporate reorganisations, exit taxes and the restrictive effect of domestic anti-abuse regimes. By doing so, the convergences and divergences arising from the interplay of EU corporate tax law and international tax law, especially the OECD model, are uncovered and highlighted.




Investment Fund Taxation


Book Description

The effect of the significant changes in tax law at domestic, European, and international levels on investment funds, an important part of global financial services, creates a complex environment for practitioners and a source of debate for academics and policymakers. This is the first book to provide a comprehensive legal and practical analysis of the changes to the complex multilevel tax and regulatory framework concerning different types of investment funds. The contributions, updated as of late 2017, were originally presented at a conference held at the University of Luxembourg in November 2016 under the auspices of the ATOZ Chair for European and International Taxation. The book covers the central questions arising in national law and tax policy, explores the regulatory and tax framework of the European Union (EU), and discusses the multifaceted interactions of both national and EU law with bilateral tax treaties. Through fourteen chapters following a brief introduction, leading academic experts and practising specialists provide decisive insight into: – the regulatory regime for European investment funds; – the tax law and reforms in both Luxembourg and Germany; – the role of the European Commission’s State-aid practices; – examples of case law concerning the application of non-discrimination rules to various investment vehicles; – the impact of tax-specific EU legislation, such as the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, the Tax Merger Directive, and the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive; – the availability of tax treaty protection for different collective and non-collective investment funds; – the impact of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) developments on the taxation of cross-border investments; – the value-added tax (VAT) treatment of investment funds and their managers; and – the consequences of the global drive towards automatic exchange of information relating to existing cross-border investment structures. With its particular focus on Luxembourg – the leading centre for investment funds in Europe (and second only to the United States globally) and, thus, an instructive model for domestic-level investment fund regulation and taxation – this volume reveals the common issues that arise in virtually every other jurisdiction with a sizeable fund industry. As the first in-depth treatment of the globally significant nexus between investment funds and taxation, the book will prove valuable to policymakers, practitioners, and academics in both financial services and tax law.




Double Taxation Within the European Union


Book Description

Despite the conclusion of tax treaties and despite the enactment of several directives, double taxation continues to occur within the EU, causing severe obstacles for cross-border trade, for the provision of services and capital, and for the free movement of persons. This book collects the expert analysis and recommendations on the following issues: the reasons for the existence (and persistence) of juridical and economic double taxation; double burdens in criminal law; constitutional limits for double taxation; the Lisbon Treaty's abolition of Article 293 EC, which had required Member States to conclude tax treaties in order to abolish double taxation; whether double taxation can be avoided by the application of the four freedoms; prospects for an EU-wide multilateral tax treaty; the proposed Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base; and use of arbitration clauses in tax treaties.




Human Rights and Taxation in Europe and the World


Book Description

Resumen del editor: "The increasing globalization and the restructuring of the European legal framework by the Treaty of Lisbon are important factors to suggest that the traditional separation of spheres between taxation and human rights should be revisited. This book examines the issues surrounding the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the guarantee and enforcement of human rights in the area of EU (tax) law and explores the possible development and potential impact of human rights in the field of taxation in this age of global law."




A Comparative Look at Regulation of Corporate Tax Avoidance


Book Description

This volume provides a fascinating look at the anti-tax avoidance strategies employed by more than fifteen countries in eastern and western Europe, Canada, the Pacific Rim, Asia, Africa, and the United States. It surveys the similarities and differences in anti-avoidance regimes and contains detailed chapters for each country surveying the moral and legal dimensions of the problem. The proliferation of tax avoidance schemes in recent years signals the global dimensions of a problem presenting a serious challenge to the effective administration of tax laws. Tax avoidance involves unacceptable manipulation of the law to obtain a tax advantage. These transactions support wasteful behavior in which corporations enter into elaborate, circuitous arrangements solely to minimize tax liability. It frustrates the ability of governments to collect sufficient revenue to provide essential public goods and services. Avoidance of duly enacted provisions (or manipulation to secure tax benefits unintended by the legislature) poses a threat to the effective operation of a free society for the benefit of a small group of members who seek the privilege of shifting their tax burden onto others merely to compete in the world of commerce. In a world in which world treasuries struggle for the resources to battle terrorist threats and to secure a decent standard of living for constituents tax avoidance can bring economies close to the edge of sustainability. As tax avoidance is one of the top concerns of most nations, the importance of this work cannot be overstated.




Hybrid Financial Instruments, Double Non-Taxation and Linking Rules


Book Description

Hybrid Financial Instruments, Double Non-taxation and Linking Rules Félix Daniel Martínez Laguna Hybrid financial instruments (HFIs) are widespread ordinary financial instruments that combine debt and equity features in their terms and design and may lead to double non-taxation across borders. This important book provides a deeply informed and critical analysis and guide to the “linking rules” developed to combat double non-taxation stemming from HFIs within the framework of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the anti-avoidance initiatives of the European Union (EU). These complex rules have now become essential in international taxation. The book deals incisively with crucial theoretical and practical issues as the following: Economic and legal reasons for financing business activity through debt instruments, equity instruments and/or HFIs. Qualification of financial instruments from different perspectives such as economics, corporate finance, corporate law, financial accounting law, regulatory law and tax law and their interrelation. The concept of double non-taxation as a mere outcome of parallel exercises of sovereignty by different states and the role it plays within the international debate. The concepts of tax planning, tax avoidance and the misleading concept of aggressive tax planning within a tax competition international scenario and their relation with HFIs. Comprehensive policy, legal and technical detail and explanation of the linking rules proposed by the OECD (i.e., BEPS Project Action 2) and the EU (e.g., Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive). The (in)compatibility of linking rules with existing tax treaty rules and EU primary law. The author refers throughout to relevant model convention provisions, EU case law and a vast number of references of official documentation and literature. With its detailed attention to the concept and legal nature of HFIs and double non-taxation, the critical and comprehensive analysis of the linking rules developed by the OECD and the EU, this provocative book allows to reconsider the legality of these linking rules and will quickly become a much-used problem-solving resource for policymakers, tax practitioners, tax authorities and tax academics. This book allows to rethink whether linking rules relate to a solution or create actual legal issues.