This book deals with all the EC law norms that are relevant from the perspective of direct taxes. It explains how these norms are, and should be, interpreted and how they affect national tax laws and the tax treatment in EU Member States. It begins by giving a comprehensive overview of the basic principles and concepts of EC tax law and all relevant articles of the EC Treaty, analysing them in the light of direct tax case law. A discussion follows covering all relevant EC directives and recommendations and other soft law material on direct taxes. Reference is made to all relevant judgments of the EC Court on direct taxes. The book includes a chapter on the tax treatment of the different EU entity forms and the future of corporate taxation, with a separate chapter dedicated to the EC law issues related to transfer pricing and to the EC law norms on administrative assistance in tax matters.

Major changes in EU tax law demand an analysis of not just the current state of the field, but also forthcoming EU-level policy initiatives and their likely implications for taxpayers, regulators, and national legislatures alike. This book, the first in-depth commentary and analysis of such developments, offers exactly that. Twenty EU tax and policy experts examine the impact of EU Treaty provisions and recent ECJ case law on EU tax law, and provide well-informed assessments of current and anticipated EU tax policy initiatives and their potential impacts. Taxpayers, their advisors, national tax administrations, and national legislators will find relevant chapters to aid their understanding of, and to allow them to proactively address, EU tax law issues, such as: – non-discrimination; – state aid rules; – fundamental freedoms; – discretionary power of national tax authorities; – tax competition in the internal market; – cross-border exchange of tax information; – corporate tax harmonization; – EU and Member States’ external relations; and – the limits of judicial authority in tax policy. As an authoritative,detailed guide to recent and future developments in EU tax law, with highly informed insights into their practical effect, this book will be a welcome addition to the arsenal available to tax practitioners dealing with European tax matters, as well as interested policymakers and academics.

Peter J. Wattel is Advocate General in the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, State Councillor extraordinary in the Netherlands Council of State and professor of EU tax law at the Amsterdam Centre for Tax Law (ACTL), University of Amsterdam. Otto Marres is professor at the ACTL and tax lawyer at Meijburg & Co., Amsterdam. Hein Vermeulen is professor at the ACTL and Director of PwC’s EU Direct Tax Group. The seventh edition of this two-volume set brings a comprehensive and systematic survey of European Tax Law up to January 2018. It provides a state of the art clarification and analysis of the implications of the EU Treaties and secondary EU law for national and bilateral tax law. From the consequences of the EU free movement rights - to the soft law meant to put a halt to harmful tax competition. The seventh edition of European Tax Law offers a cutting-edge analysis of the field surrounding tax law across Europe. It puts forward a thought-provoking discussion of the current EU tax rules, as well as of the EU Court’s case law in tax matters. Previous editions were highly regarded as a staple overview of EU tax law among EU tax law practitioners, policymakers, the judiciary and academics alike. With its updated legislation and case-law up to January 2018, this new edition maintains its unparalleled depth and clarity as the go-to reference book in the field. This first volume of ‘European Tax Law’ extensively covers: 1. The consequences of the EU free movement rights, the EU State aid prohibition, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the general principles of EU law for national tax law, tax treaties, national (tax) procedure, State liability and relations with third States, as they appear from the case law of the Court of justice of the EU 2. Secondary EU law in force and proposed on direct taxes: the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, the Tax Merger Directive, the Interest and Royalties Directive, cross-border tax dispute settlement instruments, the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive and the C(C)CTB proposal 3. The exchange of information and other administrative assistance in the assessment and recovery of taxes between the EU Member States 4. Soft Law on Harmful Tax Competition 5. Procedural matters and the extent of judicial protection The upcoming second volume of this set will cover harmonization of indirect taxation, energy taxation and capital duty, as well as administrative cooperation in the field of indirect taxation.

Ben Terra (1946–2019) was professor of tax law at the universities of Amsterdam (UvA), the Netherlands, and Lund, Sweden. Peter Wattel is Advocate General in the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, State Councillor extraordinary in the Netherlands, Council of State and professor of EU tax law at the Amsterdam Centre for Tax Law (ACTL), University of Amsterdam. Sjoerd Douma is professor at the ACTL, Director of the Adv LLM programme in International Tax Law at Amsterdam Law School, and partner at Lubbers, Boer & Douma in The Hague. Otto Marres is professor at the ACTL, and tax lawyer at Meijburg & Co., Amsterdam. Hein Vermeulen is Director of PwC’s EU Direct Tax Group, Amsterdam. Dennis Weber is professor of European Corporate Taxation at the ACTL and of counsel at Loyens & Loeff. The eighth edition of this leading textbook brings its comprehensive and systematic survey of European Tax Law up to March 2022. With its critical discussion of the EU tax rules and of the European Court’s case law in tax matters, it surpasses every other textbook on EU Tax Law in its clarification and analysis of the implications of the EU Treaties and secondary EU law for national and bilateral tax law. The in-depth coverage of Volume I includes the following: 1. The far-reaching consequences of the EU free movement rights, the EU State aid prohibition, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the general principles of EU law for national tax law, tax treaties, national (tax) procedure, State liability, and relations with third States. 2. Secondary EU law in force and proposed on direct taxes (Parent-Subsidiary Directive, Tax Merger Directive, Interest and Royalties Directive, cross-border tax dispute settlement instruments, the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive and pending company tax proposals). 3. (Automatic) exchange of information and other administrative assistance in the assessment and recovery of taxes between the EU Member States. 4. Soft Law on Harmful Tax Competition. Procedural matters and the extent of judicial protection are emphasized throughout this volume. This new edition will continue to be of immense value to law school and university programmes in (international) tax law and in European Union law and for practice. Volume II (2021) of this book covers harmonization of indirect taxation, energy taxation and capital duty, as well as administrative cooperation in the field of indirect taxation.

Basic knowledge of European Tax Law This concise handbook has become a traditional instrument for gaining basic knowledge of European tax law with emphasis on direct taxes. It is directed at students, experienced international tax specialists with little knowledge of European law, European law specialists and non-Europeans who deal with Europe for business or academic reasons and need to understand the foundations of European tax law. Moreover, this book can be useful to academics without a legal background in approaching technical issues raised by European Union tax law, as well as give inspiration to the most experienced European direct tax law experts. The eighth edition adds new updates on the most essential changes and new case law of the CJEU in the field of European direct taxation. Furthermore, due to its particular importance, the EU Global Minimum Tax Directive is now covered in a separate chapter.

This handbook is a concise guide for all those who aim at obtaining a basic knowledge of European tax law. Designed for students, it should also be useful for experienced international tax specialists with little knowledge of European law, European law specialists who are reluctant to approach the technicalities of direct taxation and non-Europeans who deal with Europe for business or academic reasons and need to understand the foundations of European tax law. This book should also help academics without a legal background to approach the technical issues raised by European Union tax law. This edition contains selected relevant information available as of 30 June 2022. It retains all of the features and tools contained in the previous editions (including the final charts, which our readers very much appreciate). In this edition we have also included a list of relevant documents and a selection of reference textbooks on European tax law in five languages, which we found of potential interest to our readers.

The book explores the hybrid nature of enhanced cooperation law between the law of single Member States and secondary EU law. Furthermore, it identifies the limits to and challenges of enhanced cooperation law-making, and explains how State aid law provisions should be applied to enhanced cooperation laws. The book also develops a sophisticated approach to the limits non-participating Member States face in ensuring that their actions do not impede the implementation of enhanced cooperation between the participating Member States.

Until now the topic of legal remedies in European direct tax law has been significantly underexposed within the academic tax community. This book aims at filling this gap by providing the typical approaches to European tax law with a general vision on European law, and puts together theory and practice, but also includes contributions on selected relevant issues arising in the protection of taxpayers' rights.

Determining the burden of proof in tax law cases is usually what contributes most to the case’s outcome. Legal presumptions – those inferences that are laid down in the law rather than being the result of the court’s reasoning – play a critical role in such determinations. This very useful book uncovers the details of such presumptions which are shared among European tax law systems, thus revealing a remarkably clear path through the course of a tax law case in any Member State in the context of EU law. Referring to both legal theory and relevant case law, the author assesses whether and to what extent national legal presumptions may be deemed to be consistent with EU law, and when this is not the case, under which conditions they may be reconciled. The analysis unfolds along such avenues as the following: – the meaning of the concept of legal presumption as developed by legal theory and authoritative academic literature; – special considerations regarding presumptions in customs law, VAT, and direct taxation (harmonized and unharmonized); – how tax authorities use presumptions to simplify the assessment of tax and tackle tax avoidance or evasion, particularly in cross-border situations; – justifications asserted by the Member States in relation to restrictions on fundamental freedoms; and – standards of compatibility for national legal presumptions with EU law resulting from CJEU case law. With reference to national experience, using Italy and Belgium as specific examples, the analysis culminates in an elaboration of criteria for legal presumptions capable of meeting the test of compatibility with EU law. As an in-depth investigation of possible inconsistencies and conditions for the coexistence of EU and Member State tax law, this book will be welcomed by both taxation authority officials and taxpayer counsel. The understanding it imparts on the actual impact of EU law on the recourse to legal presumptions by national tax legislatures and the protection of European taxpayers is unsurpassed.

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.