Much has been written – and probably even more has been said – about the different consequences of the Brexit vote. This is hardly a surprise: the decision is a first in the history of the European Union, and despite the existence of the nowadays (in?) famous Article 50, one still has trouble understanding how…

A considerable increase of transfer pricing disputes could be observed in Italy over the last decade. Notwithstanding the rising trend of proceedings activated by the Tax Authorities and further scrutinized by the Italian Courts, there is not – to date – a jurisprudential orientation such to provide the interpreter with the necessary guidance in the…

If the UK leaves the EU, this would have immediate consequences for direct taxation.[1] We saw in the first post that the EU fundamental freedoms, EU provisions on State aid and EU directives and regulations (also those on direct taxation) would automatically cease to apply to the UK. Referring back to the second post on…

On 24 August 2016, the US Treasury Department issued a White Paper on “The European Commission’s Recent State Aid Investigations of Transfer Pricing Rules” (the “White Paper”), denouncing the Commission’s “new approach” as “an unforeseeable departure from the status quo” whose retroactive application “would be inconsistent with EU legal principles” and “undermine the G20’s efforts…

Harmonisation of the efforts to discourage tax avoidance in the EU Recently, besides the objective of maintaining a balanced allocation1 (a reflection of the principle of territoriality), the imperative of restoring trust in the fairness of tax systems has been gaining terrain as a possible justification for restrictions of free movement rights2. The Member States…

On June 24 the British people voted in favour of the UK leaving the EU. The vote itself does not automatically imply the withdrawal from the EU: indeed, such withdrawal shall take place pursuant to Article 50 of the EU Treaty, which requires in the first place the notification of the intention to leave the…

Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) has become one of the top priorities on the Agenda of almost all supranational bodies (OECD, EU, UN) and many jurisdictions. Due to the overall lack of revenues by Countries and the innumerable tax-related leaks (Luxleaks, Panama papers, etc.) along with the recent and ongoing changes within the worldwide international tax…

“Improper and plainly undermines legal certainty and the rule of law.”  This is how four U.S. senators – including the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee – recently described the European Commission’s State aid investigation into tax rulings by Member States, including into Ireland’s tax treatment of Apple. Of course the…

The EU Commission and EU Parliament want to settle for nothing less than public country-by-country-reporting, in direct conflict with G20 BEPS adoption resolution. For many good reasons, business in Europe is opposed to such publication. I do not need to dwell on the arguments here. These are widely available. My interest has been piqued by…

When UK voters went to the polls on 23 June 2016 and voted by a slim majority to leave the European Union, few of them had in mind the impact on taxation.  Future generations are unlikely to view it kindly. Looked at from the present the dominating features are uncertainty and disruption of settled tax…

A critical appraisal of the EU Switch Over Rule and the Indian Equalization Levy At present, it is unavoidable to recognize that the international tax scenario is in transition to a much more inter-nation equitable system, where the national tax base will be better protected against erosion and profit-shifting corporate manipulations than it was in…

Introduction On 28 January 2016, the proposal for a council directive laying down rules against tax avoidance practices that directly affect the functioning of the internal market (the so-called ATA-directive) has been published. Article 4 of the ATA directive contains an interest limitation rule that very closely resembles the German interest limitation rule which is…

(about the switch-over clause in the ATA Directive) In order to combat BEPS, the European Commission is proposing to start taxing low taxed non-EU income. That sounds reasonable, but the consequence will be that in the EU, there will be no more profits to tax. This is a proposal that is not necessary to prevent…

On 28 January 2016, the European Commission issued its proposal for a Council Directive dealing with tax avoidance practices within the EU – the so-called Anti-BEPS Directive. The context of the proposal is well known: in a nutshell, the proposal results from the dual influences of the (thus far) failed 2011 CCCTB proposal and the…