On 7 December 2021, government ministers from European Union (EU) countries gathering at the EU Council agreed on updates of the current rules governing value added tax (VAT) rates for goods and services. The new EU rules on VAT rates represent a long-awaited modernisation of the relevant provisions contained in Annex III to Directive 2006/112/CE…
The right to be free from discrimination is perhaps the single most important human right as indicated by the fact that it appears as the first article in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” In the field of international taxation, article 24…
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…
We are proud to announce that Dr Alice Pirlot has joined the Kluwer International Tax Blog’s team as an editor, responsible for the new section of the blog dedicated to Environmental Taxation. Dr Pirlot, who defended her doctoral thesis at the University of Louvain in 2016, is currently a Research Fellow in Law at the…
Johannes Becker and Joachim Englisch* After the international political agreement to introduce an effective country-by-country minimum tax on multinational firm profits, there are still some open questions on the design and implementation of the tax[1]. Among other elements, the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework Statement of 8 October 2021 envisages a “formulaic substance carve-out” for deemed routine…
We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Polyvios Nikolaou, Mandatory Binding Arbitration: Avoiding Stalemates Over the Tax Chessboard The resolution of tax treaty disputes under the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) mechanism is inherently problematic. This article examines how the introduction…
Introduction On 8th October 2021, 136 jurisdictions reached an historic agreement to reform the international tax system and, in the words of the OECD, bring it into the 21st century.[1] The so-called two-pillar solution was presented to the G-20 Finance Ministers and the G-20 Leaders, who endorsed it. Thus, the future work of the OECD…
We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Rita de la Feria, On the Evolving VAT Concept of Fixed Establishment The relevance of the concept of fixed establishment (FE) for the EU VAT system can hardly be over-stated. Similarly to the…
In a judgment rendered on 5 October 2021 (case 2C_891/2020), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court upheld the decision by the Federal Administrative Court of 18 September 2020 (case A-7028/2018), which had found that the proceeds realized by a Swiss corporate VAT taxpayer from the resale of a position of its own stock (“treasury shares”) did…
We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Edoardo Traversa & Benoît Timmermans, Value-Added Tax (VAT) and Sustainability in the European Union: A Radical Proposal Design Issues, Legal Aspects, and Policy Alternatives This article aims to examine how the implementation of…
It is with great sadness that Kluwer Law International has learned of the passing of Frans Vanistendael. On a very hot summer day more than thirty years ago, Henk van Arendonk, Fred de Hosson, Leo Stevens and I drove to a village near Leuven where we met with Frans. Our mission was to convince him…
G E Financial Investments Limited v HMRC [2021] UKFTT 210 (TC) raised central aspects of the interpretation of double tax treaties. My previous blogs considered the corporate residence under article 4(1) of the UK-US Double Tax Treaty and the existence of a permanent establishment under article 5(1) of the treaty. The First-tier Tribunal decided that…
We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Svetislav V. Kostić, A Plea for a Workforce Presence PE Concept in a Post-Covid Digitalized World This paper begins with the recapitulation of the generally accepted view that the key problem with the…
Just two weeks ago on 8 October 2021, 136 of 140 member countries of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework agreed on a global tax deal that also features the GloBE international effective minimum tax (the so-called Pillar 2 of their work program). The G20 finance ministers backed the deal in their subsequent meeting, too. The agreement…
