Document from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Law, grade: Overall Degree 1,3, University of Linz, language: English, abstract: This work focuses on the Commission Recommendation of 06.12.2012 on aggressive tax planning C(2012) 8806 final. It aims to analyse the concepts and definitions underlying the Recommendation, its legal basis and its impact on the EU, international, academic and professional debate about aggressive tax planning. The discussion works through a thorough literature review covering primary and secondary EU law, ECJ jurisprudence, political announcements of the OECD and other international organisations. Detailed tables summarise the key issues discovered. The Recommendation has been neither unanimously adopted, nor rejected by the public. It provides broad definitions already addressed in a more precise manner in other official publications. Its approach against double non-taxation is similar to that of the ECJ and its GAAR proposal has gained ground with regard to the recent OECD announcements. The main criticism arises from the academia: the Recommendation is considered to be too general and to deviate widely from the established methodologies. The scope of the Recommendation lies on direct taxation of business activity which precludes analysis of indirect taxes as well as statutory wrongs like harmful tax competition or state aid. The study enriches the academic publicity on the Recommendation that has experienced only modest coverage by the taxation scholarship following its release.

This book examines recent developments and high-profile debates that have arisen in the field of international tax law and European tax law. Topics such as international tax avoidance, corporate social responsibility, good governance in tax matters, harmful tax competition, state aid, tax treaty abuse and the financial transaction tax are considered. The OECD/G20 project on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) features prominently in the book. The interaction with the European Union's Action Plan to strengthen the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion is also considered. Particular attention is paid to specific BEPS deliverables, exploring them through the prism of European Union law. Can the two approaches be aligned or are there inherent conflicts between them? The book also explores whether, when it comes to aggressive tax planning, there are internal conflicts between the established case law of the Court of Justice and the emerging policy of the European institutions. By so doing it offers a review of issues which are of constitutional importance to the European Union. Finally, the book reflects on the future of international and European tax law in the post-BEPS world.

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.

A rigorous analysis of various aspects related to treaty access Tax treaty access is an ongoing challenge for both taxpayers and tax authorities. This volume provides a rigorous analysis of various aspects related to treaty access. Schematically, the volume is divided into four parts. The first part deals with general interpretative issues and principles; the second and third parts cover a wide range of sub-aspects relating to the subjective and objective scope of tax treaties and the recent challenges posed to tax treaty access, while the fourth part focuses on the knotty issues of treaty shopping and abuse. The structure of the volume reflects the necessity to approach access to treaty benefits in a holistic way and view the recent trends through a wide lens. All chapters contain a complete examination of the relevant topics, starting from a historical perspective and continuing with tax treaty law principles and tax practice analysis. Where appropriate, a domestic law and domestic courts’ jurisprudence perspective was added as well as a comparative analysis of several jurisdictions thus complementing the examination of each topic. Finally, special attention is given to treaty abuse and the new GAAR introduced in the 2017 OECD Model together with its interrelation with other treaty and domestic anti-abuse provisions and the impact of these provisions on tax treaty access and tax policy in general.

This book is a compilation of contributions exploring the impact of the European Treaty provisions regarding state aid on Member States’ legislation and administrative practice in the area of business taxation. Starting from a detailed analysis of the European Courts’ jurisprudence on Art.107 TFEU the authors lay out fundamental issues – e.g. on legal concepts like “advantage”, “selectivity” and “discrimination” – and explore current problems – in particular policy and practice regarding “harmful” tax competition within the European Union. This includes the Member States’ Code of Conduct on business taxation, the limits to anti-avoidance legislation and the options for legislation on patent boxes. The European Commission’s recent findings on preferential “rulings” are discussed as well as the general relationship between international tax law, transfer pricing standards and the European prohibition on selective fiscal aids.

The New Digital Era's two volumes highlight the new social and economic policies that are needed to balance the effects on social and economic life and prevent possible conflicts between individuals and societies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and digitalisation.

This report presents studies and data available regarding the existence and magnitude of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), and contains an overview of global developments that have an impact on corporate tax matters.