The author would like to give thanks to Professor Daniel Gutmann, Professor Georg Kofler, and Simon Whitehead for an engaging and intellectually stimulating exchange of views on the CJEU’s judgment in X BV case through the emails. This post benefitted from it. However, the author is solely responsible for its content and no views expressed…

Vassilis Dafnomilis (Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam / Senior Manager Tax at PwC Netherlands Tax Knowledge Centre) Francesco Semonella (Associate at Maisto e Associati, Italy)[1] A palindrome is a word, phrase, or sentence that reads the same backward as forward. The term “palindrome” originates from the Greek words “palin” (meaning “again”) and “drome”…

Introduction Two and a half years ago, the Kluwer International Tax Blog published a great contribution from Pawel Mikula titled “Are the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)’s judgments on VAT too hard to understand?”. One could be forgiven for thinking that the recent judgment Deco Proteste – Editores (C‑505/22) was the CJEU’s…

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Georg Kofler, Curia Locuta, Causa Finita: Some Further Conclusions from W AG The Court’s decision in W AG on the cross-border utilization of treaty-exempt foreign losses has not only turned its back on Lidl…

Raise your hand if you have any certainty of when recharges of costs between a branch and its head office fall outside the scope of VAT. Some time ago, we would have been pretty confident to regard such intra-entity ‘services’[1] – i.e., transactions between a branch and its head office – as falling outside the scope…

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Reuven Avi-Yonah, Do Intangibles Fit BEFIT? This article argues that the BEFIT formula should not include intangibles because they are subject to manipulation and their value is reflected by other factors in the existing…

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Jeroen Lammers & Błażej Kuźniacki, The EU Solidarity Contribution and a More Proportional Alternative: A Study Under EU and International Investment Law This paper reviews the EU Solidarity Contribution that was recently introduced by…

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Han Kogels, A Changing World Making the Road to Carbon Neutrality Even More Bumpy Since the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Glasgow in November 2021 (COP26) the world has changed dramatically. In February…

State aid law is closely linked to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) commitment to creating, maintaining, and strengthening a common market in which competition is not distorted. Precisely what characterises companies that form part of a group of companies (multinational or not) is that transactions carried out between them are…

In his conclusions in Case C-571/21 on 13 October 2022 [1], AG Rantos addressed the exemption from excise duties for electricity intended to produce more electricity. The case concerns the refusal by the German customs authorities concerning the application for an exemption from excise duties made by a local company which extracted lignite in open-air…

 Summary The Court of the European Free Trade Association – the EFTA equivalent of the CJEU – now also is demarcating the room for manoeuvre for the Member States in company tax matters within the scope of the EEA Treaty freedoms by reference to the arm’s-length standard. The EFTA Court does so in the same…

The very recent CJEU judgement in Berlin Chemie A. Menarini v Administraţia Fiscală pentru Contribuabili Mijlocii Bucureşti (Case C-333/20) ECLI:EU:C:2022:291, admirably examined by Giorgio Beretta last week considered the circumstances in which a subsidiary might be a VAT fixed establishment (FE) of its parent company or another affiliate. A Romanian company supplied advertising, marketing and…

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), by means of an Order in Case C-255/20 of 9 November 2021 [1], established the incompatibility with EU law, in particular with Directives 2008/118/EC and 92/12/EEC, of the Italian Regional Tax on Petrol for Automotive (IRBA), due to the absence of a specific purpose attributed to…

Territorial connection (or its more fashionable name “nexus”) for tax purposes is expressed in a variety of ways in domestic and international legal instruments. Permanent establishment in article 5 of the Model treaties and “fixed base” in article 14 of the UN Model are central concepts in direct tax subject matter jurisdiction. Fixed establishment The…