Taxation Of Foreign Business Income Within The European Internal Market

The rules of the Member States on the taxation of the foreign business income of companies, whether such rules are based on the fiscal principle of territoriality or on the principle of worldwide taxation, are in conflict with the objective of achievement of the internal market. This objective is indeed difficult to reach when it comes to the taxation of foreign income, given that the Member States are far from taxing companies doing business cross-border as if their operations were purely domestic. Areas of conflict include particularly the taxation of foreign profits, the deduction of foreign losses, the elimination of international double taxation and the attribution of profits to permanent establishments. This dissertation analyses this conflict on the basis of a study of the case law of the European Court of Justice as well as some of the key provisions of the European treaties. It appears that both the fiscal principle of territoriality and the principle of worldwide taxation give rise to complex issues of compatibility with the law of the European Union. Although the analysis conducted throughout the dissertation provides some guidance for the taxation of the foreign business income of companies, it is concluded that the Court cannot, by itself, efficiently resolve the conflict between such taxation and the objective of achievement of the internal market.

Analysis of problems in the field of company taxation in the Internal Market: the obstacles to cross-border economic activity and their possible remedies. This study (the major source document for the European Commission's policy statement on company taxation COM (2001) 582 also considers the possibilities for a reform of company taxation at EU level which would aim at providing companies with a single consolidated tax base for their EU-wide activities.

"This book deals with the impact of the free movement rules in the EC Treaty on tax treaties in the internal market. This is a highly relevant issue since a provision in breach of the free movement rules in inapplicable. The potential far-reaching consequences following the preclusion of tax treaty provisions makes it important for taxpayers and governments of the Member States of the EU to predict when a provision in a tax treaty may be in conflict with free movement law." "This book identifies the rights and obligations stemming from the free movement rules. As they are not very detailed, the case law is crucial. Hence, this book includes extensive case law studies, focusing primarily on cases where the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) has interpreted the free movement rules in relation to tax treaty provisions and unilateral income tax legislation. This study provides a systematization of such case law, highlighting consistencies and inconsistencies."--BOOK JACKET.

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 descriptive report providing factual information on controlled foreign company legislation as of June 1995 in the 14 OECD member countries that operated such regimes.

The principle of territoriality and the fundamental freedoms The tension between the fundamental freedoms and the sovereignty of the Member States is omnipresent in the CJEU ́s case law on direct taxation. A significant number of cases concerned one of the core principles in national tax laws: the principle of territoriality. Although this principle is continuously mentioned in cases concerning the compatibility of direct tax measures with the fundamental freedoms, the case law seems to provoke more questions than answers. This book provides guidance on the meaning of territoriality in the CJEU ́s case law on direct taxation as well as on the role which this principle plays in the compatibility of domestic direct tax measures with the fundamental freedoms. During a critical and dogmatically oriented journey through the CJEU ́s case law, the reader can enjoy a comprehensive analysis, containing references to more than 300 cases. Without a doubt, this timeless reflection of the tension between the principle of territoriality and the fundamental freedoms is not only interesting from a dogmatic perspective, but also from a tax policy one.

Recoge : 1. Introduction. - 2. Previous literature. - 3. The data. - 4. The estimation. - 5. Empirical results. - 6. Conclusions.

The contributions to this volume try to overcome the traditional approach of the judicature of the European Court of Justice regarding the application of the fundamental freedoms in direct taxation that is largely built on a non-discrimination test. In this volume, outstanding authors cover various aspects of the national and international tax order when European law meets domestic taxation. This includes testing traditional pillars of income taxation – ability-to-pay, source and residence, abuse of law, arm’s length standard – with respect to their place in the emerging European tax order as well as substantial matters of co-existence between different tax systems that are not covered by the non-discrimination approach such as mutual recognition, cross-border loss compensation or avoidance of double taxation. The overarching goal is to flesh out the extent to which a substantive “allocation of taxing powers” within the European Union is on its way to a convincing overall framework and to stretch the discussion “beyond discrimination”.