The transition toward a cashless society is at the heart of many public policy discussions. The move is driven by several factors, such as the spread of debit and credit cards, the development of mobile and instant payment technologies favoured by FinTech and digital platforms, as well as the effects of the pandemic and the…
Highlights & Insights on European Taxation Please find below a selection of articles published this month (July 2022) in Highlights & Insights on European Taxation, plus one freely accessible article. Highlights & Insights on European Taxation (H&I) is a publication by Wolters Kluwer Nederland BV. The journal offers extensive information on all recent developments in European Taxation in the…
The EU VAT Rate Reform 2022, Including a Two-Pronged Approach to Align the EU VAT Rate System with the Green New Deal In April 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted a Directive (2022/542) which brings about significant changes to the rate system of the EU VAT Directive (Council Directive 2006/112/EC). Most notably, it…
Highlights & Insights on European Taxation Please find below a selection of articles published this month (June 2022) in Highlights & Insights on European Taxation, plus one freely accessible article. Highlights & Insights on European Taxation (H&I) is a publication by Wolters Kluwer Nederland BV. The journal offers extensive information on all recent developments in European Taxation in the…
Article 59ab of the VAT Directive (Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax) was implemented into the Spanish domestic legislation through Article 70(2) of the Spanish VAT law (Law No. 37 of 28 December 1992 on value added tax). As is well known, this article contains a special…
Two years on since Chapter X of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines (Chapter X) was published in February 2020, the practical transfer pricing aspects of financial transactions are due another look. While financial transactions were often ignored once put in place, administrative practice, case law, interaction with interest limitation rules and new guidance have elevated…
[1] ‘You are so beautiful’ was a famous song from Joe Cocker. When DEBRA (the draft Debt-Equity Bias Reduction Allowance-directive) arrived many tax lawyers responded very positively. At last, a directive which offers enterprises something positive instead of taking away benefits. The question is, however, will this new baby grow up to be a very…
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…
“Green recovery” is one of the key themes of the stimulus packages implemented worldwide in response to the Covid-19-related economic downturn. Traditionally, the answer to economic crises has focused on monetary policy and financial assistance programmes. However, as interest rates get closer to the zero lower bound, alternative stimulus policies are gaining attention in academic…
The current state of play in the negotiations for an EU Pillar 2 Directive is that all but one Member State are on board. Hence, there is one “dissenting” Member State left. As unanimity is needed within the Council to adopt an EU Directive on Pillar 2, it is currently not possible to implement Pillar…
Ivan Ozai (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University) Increasing concerns about anthropogenic climate change have motivated governments to strengthen policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One of the most novel policy issues under discussion in the European Union is the implementation of a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to equalize carbon prices on EU-produced…
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…
A subsidiary cannot be a fixed establishment (FE) under EU VAT in (almost) any case. This is a (quite) reassuring takeaway for VAT businesses from the much-awaited decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Berlin Chemie A. Menarini (Case C-333/20). With its ruling on 7 April 2022, the CJEU (re?)affirmed…
On 10 March 2022, the Spanish Tax Administration issued a ruling concerning the VAT treatment of the transfer, through an online internet auction, of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) that grant their purchasers certain rights of use (hereinafter: ‘the Ruling’).[1] The Spanish Tax Administration provides through this ruling a comprehensive analysis of the taxation for VAT of…
