State of affairs Over the last two decades, eminent scholars and commentators have been highlighting the numerous issues arising from the current regime governing insurance and financial services as laid down in Article 135, 1, (a)-(g) of the Directive 2006/112/EC (“VAT directive“). From the lack of competitiveness of EU financial services businesses versus US counterparts…
I. Introductory remarks In its recently closed public consultation on a possible carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) for selected sectors as a key element of the EU Green Deal, the EU Commission has asked for comments on several policy options for such a mechanism. In the accompanying Inception Impact Assessment, the Commission has furthermore set…
In international customary law, the scope of bilateral tax conventions is not exhaustive and instead limited by the temporal scope set out in ‘taxes covered’ clause. It is true that the scope of such clause, albeit with additional procedural stipulations, is ambulatory and taxes subsequently enacted under the domestic law provisions by treaty partners are…
We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Qiang Cai, Luca Cerioni & Xiaorong (Sharron) Li, New Taxing Right in the Unified Approach: Old Wine in a New Bottle The OECD’s ‘Unified Approach’ (UA) features new taxing rights allocated to market…
Last month witnessed the release of the operative part of the award of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (‘PCA’) in the dispute initiated by Vodafone’s Dutch entity against Government of India (‘GOI’) under the India-Netherlands Bilateral Investment Treaty (‘Indo-Dutch BIT’). It is understood that the detailed award has been withheld in view of the request…
Swiss Domestic Law provides for an unlimited personal tax liability for companies if their registered offices or their effective place of management is located in Switzerland. This tax liability however does not extend to permanent establishments abroad.[1] The delimitation methods of the tax liability for permanent establishments in foreign countries is based on the principles…
Marcos Álvarez Suso (Auditing Department of the Spanish Tax Authorities) The digital economy in the 21st century New business models associated to the so-called digital economy are blossoming in all type of economic activities all over the globe. Among many other examples of increasingly digitalized business we can find online goods sellers, streaming television services, remote…
Case law on thepurpose of transactions is starting to develop around the world. Is there a common pattern? Whether a financing structure was a “tax avoidance arrangement” under now repealed general anti-avoidance provisions of the New Zealand Income Tax Act 2004 was examined last month by the New Zealand Court of Appeal in Commissioner of…
The classification of transactions comprising several elements, features, and acts[1] is a complicated and prominent issue in the EU’s common system of VAT. It is also a popular topic for discussion and analysis which is often explored in the literature. The purpose of this post is to contribute to that discussion by presenting certain perspectives…
Missing Trader Fraud (“MTF”) is a problem that has plagued tax authorities around the world. It is a form of fraud by which syndicates make use of Value Added Tax (“VAT”) or Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) systems to defraud tax authorities. VAT/GST systems are designed to ensure that in most cases, only the final…
1. Introduction The ability to stimulate economic activity and to attract foreign capital and investments through national tax policies has been known for many centuries. It was in the middle of the eighteenth century that the Russian Empress – Catherine the Great – granted to “[…] Foreigners that have settled themselves in Russia to erect…
According to l’Echo of July 31st 2020, relying on information published in the magazine Paperjam, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has not yet paid Belgium 90 million Euros that had to be transferred before the end of March 2020. This sum is due pursuant to a clearing procedure of VAT and excises collected by the…
We are glad to announce that, as some readers might have already noted, a new feature has recently been added to the Kluwer International Tax Blog: cartoons (for those who missed the first one: https://kluwertaxblog.com/2020/09/14/legal-impediments-to-the-introduction-of-an-eu-wide-carbon-border-adjustment-mechanism/). Cartoons will be added as a feature to some articles published on the blog. We believe that this will be…
Last month, the second edition of the book ‘Fundamentals of EU VAT Law‘ was published.[1] It was written by Herman van Kesteren, Simon Cornielje, Frank Nellen and me. The second edition received a major update and contains – among other things – new key CJEU case law and new EU VAT legislation (such as the…
