Recently, national courts of several EU member States (notably France[1], Italy[2], the Netherlands[3] and Spain[4]) referred to the landmark judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) in the so-called “Danish cases”.[5] On 20 April 2020, the Swiss Supreme Court gave its own interpretation of these judgments[6] in an outbound dividend case…
Some cases just have it all; the Apple case is one of them. First, size: at more than thirteen billion euros, the recovery order Ireland had to enforce dwarfed the previously biggest one (EDF, at around one billion euros). Second, international political implications: the case ignited transatlantic tensions between the EU and the USA, both…
The global COVID-19 pandemic that arose in early 2020 could be considered the most disruptive factor the world has witnessed in generations. Paradigms taken for granted until then were upended, resulting in a ‘new normal’ that has changed the way we do business. As with all facets of business, international taxation also came under increased…
We are glad to announce that Dr Giorgio Beretta has joined the Kluwer International Tax Blog’s team as an editor, responsible for the new section of the blog dedicated to VAT/GST and indirect taxation. Dr Beretta holds a PhD in Tax Law from LIUC University (Milan, Italy), where he defended his doctoral thesis on “European…
In the aftermath of the surge in COVID-19 related government support to businesses and just days after UK Brexit negotiators announced not to extend the deadline for the ongoing negotiations with the European Union, the European Commission launched its “White Paper on levelling the playing field as regards foreign subsidies” on 17 June 2020. It…
In its judgment of January 21, 2020 (Santander case, available here), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) not only prevented the Spanish Central Tax Tribunal (Tribunal Económico-Administrativo Central – TEAC) from requesting a preliminary ruling due to its lack of juridical independence (para. 77), but it also recalled its obligation to ensure that EU law…
The global crisis provoked by the Covid-19 disease has affected several spheres of our lives. Apart from health, the biggest impact has been felt in the reduction of production and consumption, accompanied by a general tightening of business conditions. Although the course of the pandemic disease remains a factor of uncertainty, it becomes increasingly apparent…
The VAT treatment of the issue, acquisition, holding and sale of shares has become a rather complicated affair over the last thirty years. The case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on this topic is fundamentally ambiguous, causing serious legal uncertainty among businesses [1]. In its judgment in C&D Foods…
Duplicate activities? Duplicate services are defined in the 2017 Transfer Pricing Guidelines (TPG) of the OECD as “activities undertaken by one group member that merely duplicate a service that another group member is performing for itself, or that is being performed for such other group member by a third party.” [1] Those activities are expressively…
Denmark accepted all MLI articles dealing with PEs, but what does that actually mean? Reading the MLI itself leaves one somewhat bewildered, being thrown back and forth between a variety of articles and options. Reading the instrument of ratification, does not necessarily help: it tends be a collection of long list of countries with treaty…
In last month’s blog I promised to address the treaty aspects of Davies and Others v HMRC [2020] UKUT 67 (TCC). The case concerned UK resident individuals who each took out a life insurance policy with a Bermuda insurer under which their entitlements were linked to a Mauritian company that developed land in the UK….
A subsidiary can (also) be a fixed establishment (FE) of its parent company under European (EU) VAT, after all. This is the most immediate conclusion as it emerges from the much-awaited decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Dong Yang Electronics (Case C-547/18). With its ruling on 7 May 2020,…
Council Directive (EU) 2018/822 (generally known as DAC 6) expressly provides for reporting obligations concerning cross-border arrangements that present an indication of a potential risk of tax avoidance. The Annex to the Directive lists the hallmarks triggering reporting obligations, which include the category of specific hallmarks concerning transfer pricing (Category E). The first of these…
The OECD’s BEPS 2.0 project is currently navigating turbulent waters partly because of the unexpected Covid19 crisis and its impact on state budgets and the need for additional revenues, and partly because of internal tensions and conflicts within OECD dominant group of industrialized countries, the 140-member-state inclusive framework, and the business community. Disagreements include (but…
