On 18 November 2020, the CJEU delivered its judgment in case C-77/19 Kaplan International Colleges UK[1] (I will further refer to it as Kaplan). The questions which had been referred by the UK national court in the case had raised hopes that the CJEU would provide important clarifications as to the geographical scope of application…
On 4 March 2021, the CJEU issued a ruling on Frenetikexito (Case C-581/19) that is bound to throw Portuguese gym-goers off-balance. For some time, the Portuguese tax authorities have been assessing VAT on nutrition counselling provided by fitness studios on the basis such services are dependent and ancillary to fitness training. In a series of…
1. Background During the 21st Session of the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, the relevant members decided to include a new draft – Art. 12B on Automated Digital Services (ADS) as well as its Commentary – in the UN Model.[1] Concerning the agenda of the proposal, the Committee of Experts…
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…
Eleonor Kristoffersson (professor in tax law at Orebro University and visiting professor at Gävle University and Linköping University, Sweden)* Before the 1950s, no country applied Value Added Tax (VAT). Today, more than 70 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries with VAT, also called goods and services tax (GST). In this blog, the…
Summary There might be a leak in the OECD’s global minimum tax proposals (GLOBE; Pillar Two). To address the remaining challenges of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) by large multinational enterprises the OECD envisages a global minimum level of company taxation and top-up taxation by countries up to that level where other countries do…
Sarah ALsultan (Kuwait University School of Law) Extended Summary International tax competition is a worldwide phenomenon that is intensified by globalization which is a process that eased the movement of highly mobile businesses. This competition can be construed as a game in which the players are countries that need and/or want to attract businesses. Traditionally,…
Claudio Cipollini (Heidelberg University, Germany) / February 24, 2021 The identification of new instruments to improve the efficiency of transfer pricing (TP) control is a priority on the international tax law agenda. The search for effective methods of control and feasible solutions for minimizing the associated costs assume a fundamental relevance for the sustainability of…
There’s something about OECD’s Pillar One. For some years now, the world has been under the spell of a new system of taxation of companies that make profits in countries without taking root there in any way. They often operate via internet platforms, which means that the profits that are generated elsewhere cannot be taxed…
Introduction Article 11 of the VAT Directive allows EU Member States (MS) to regard as a single taxable person a group of persons established in their territory who, while legally independent, ‘are closely bound to one another by financial, economic and organisational links’. The lack of further specification about how this provision should be interpreted…
On 1 July 2019, the Dutch tax ruling practice was revised to align it with EU and international standards and recommendations as well as to increase its openness and transparency. In this respect, the Dutch tax authorities (DTA) now publish anonymized summaries of advance pricing agreements and advance pricing agreement (APA) requests. This month, Intertax…
Articles 3 and 6 ATAD: a dangerous EU legislative mix In the forthcoming issue of Intertax, I make an in-depth analysis of the issues concerning the partial implementation of the EU GAAR, as enshrined in Article 6 ATAD, by Poland in 2019. One of the main hypotheses is that the combination of Articles 6 and…
The Champions League is back in town and tonight, its iconic hymn echoes through the speakers of Europe’s greatest clubs’ mostly empty stadiums: “Die Meister! Die Besten! Les grandes équipes! The champions!” To my personal delight, I’ve always found football more fun than I found it to be important. Like every year, my favourite and local FC…
Introduction India’s 2021 Finance Bill proposes to add a definition of “liable to tax” in its domestic direct tax law. As per the definition, the term ‘liable to tax’, “in relation to a person, means that there is a liability of tax on such person under any law for the time being in force in…
