EU/EEA
Legend has it that a medieval hero of Spain, the Castilian knight El Cid, won a battle after death when his wife strapped his dead body to his horse, knowing that his reputation as an invincible warlord would make his enemies run away in fear. Something similar is happening to Eqiom: while our tax authorities…
The Trade Agreement between the EU and the UK rules out any direct effect. However, the Trade Agreement could have an indirect effect. EU Member States should interpret the capital ownership provisions in their bilateral tax treaties with the UK in line with the Trade Agreement and its provision on national treatment. On the basis…
Maarten de Wilde* Summary On March 31, 2021, U.S. President Biden released his ‘American Jobs Plan’, an ambitious proposal for large scale public investments in infrastructure and other priorities. That same day the American President announced plans to offset the costs of these investments with U.S. corporate tax increase proposals: the ‘Made in America Tax…
Today, there is an exponential increase in new forms of commercialization of goods and the provision of services that make use of digital platforms. This situation is altering the functioning of the transport, delivery and digital services markets, among others. The rise of the sharing and gig economy, powered by digital platforms, has triggered the…
Introduction Real-time reporting is high on the European Union (EU) policy agenda. Hungary, Italy and Spain already implemented such a system, whereas France and Poland are planning to do so. Now that real-time reporting is even on the political table in Germany, it is not a question of if, but of when all EU Member…
In part 1 of this blog, we focused on the increased involvement of platforms in the levy of direct and indirect taxes. In this blog, we will highlight other digital economy tax trends, such as the shift of taxation rights on digital activities and fixed establishments. Shift of taxation rights between jurisdictions More user-and-consumer based…
After the initial relief that followed upon reaching a Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on Christmas Eve, we slowly see how this treaty is going to affect the tax domain. In this blog I will briefly focus on the area of fiscal state aid, i.e. the regulation of…
The newly concluded Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and UK has limited provisions concerning taxation, but interesting provisions relevant to interpretation of treaties including good faith. The Agreement does not seek to replicate many of the rights which UK citizens and businesses had under EU law. There is no general non-discrimination provision. Double…
On 15 July 2020, the European Commission (EU Commission) unveiled a Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (the so-called ‘DAC 7’), which seeks to improve the existing framework for exchange of information in the field of direct taxation within the EU, by introducing, inter alia…
When the UK introduced its diverted profits tax, I was telephoned by a lawyer at the US Treasury. He wanted to know whether the “just and reasonable” apportionment of profits, in certain circumstances where DPT applied, was a new development? What did it mean? I was reminded of that discussion this week as a result…
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…
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…
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…
