Research question, scope and methodology -- The benchmark of international tax neutrality and the requirements of a genuine economic link under freedom of investment -- The notion of 'third countries' under freedom of investment -- Relevant positive integration between member states and between member states and third countries -- Relevant negative integration between member states -- Freedom of investment between the member states and third countries : Access -- Freedom of investment between the member states and third countries : Discrimination and justification grounds -- Freedom of investment between the member states and third countries : The temporal scope -- Freedom of investment and indirectly held third-country investments in the field of corporate income taxation -- Recommendations for concerted legislative action -- Summary and conclusions.

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.

Tax competition in the form of harmful tax practices can distort trade and investment patterns, erode national tax bases and shift part of the tax burden onto less mobile tax bases. The Report emphasises that governments must intensify their cooperative actions to curb harmful tax practices.

Member States of the European Union have always insisted on their unrestricted national sovereignty. This book focuses on the crucial issue of the balance between the imperatives of the fundamental economic freedoms of the EC Treaty and the legitimate national interests of the Member States in protecting their national tax systems. The book, based on the proceedings of the annual conference of the European Association of Tax Law Professors (EATLP) held in Paris in June 2004, has been divided into the following four major subject areas: - the significance of the prohibitions of discrimination and restriction within the framework of the fully integrated market; - the lessons to be learned for taxation from the application of these prohibitions in areas other than taxation; - the basis and scope of the public interest justification advanced by the Member States for tax measures violating the fundamental freedoms; and the compatibility of the "national tax principles of the Member States" with a fully integrated market. Attention is also given to the adaptation of the tax systems of three major new Member States (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) to the requirements of the "acquis communautaire". Finally, there is a special contribution on the effect of the prohibitions of discrimination and restriction in non-EU countries (Norway and Switzerland). This book presents a comprehensive study of the tax issues that play a decisive role in the making or breaking of the European Economic and Monetary Union.