The proposal for upholding a minimum effective tax rate on corporate profits, on which the OECD Inclusive Framework recently invited comments, has received a lot of criticism. A minimum tax would deny developing countries the possibility to compensate for a poor investment climate by offering tax breaks, harming their development. Worse, it would undermine the…

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions:   Han Kogels, The Energy Transition and Fiscal Policy The aim of the Paris Agreement of 4 November 2016, meanwhile ratified by 184 countries, is to strengthen the global response to the threat of…

The text represents the personal views of the author, which do not purport to represent the view of Poland’s Ministry of Finance. In the judgement in X GmbH (Case C-135/17), on 26 February 2019, the CJEU for the first time examined a compatibility of CFC rules with the EU primary law to the extent of…

Groundbreaking decision, landmark case, a milestone in EU case law, disappointing surprise: there are different ways to refer to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgments issued on February 26, 2019, on the withholding tax exemption provided by the Interest and Royalties Directive (joined cases C-115/16, C-118/16, C-119/16 and C-299/16, available here – the ‘IRD…

I am happy to inform you that the third issue of 2019 is available and includes, among others, the following contributions: An editorial by Edoardo Traversa, entitled “Ongoing Tax Reforms at the EU Level: Why Trust Matters”, where the author discusses the lack of trust between EU tax administrations, the very slow progress in the…

The text represents the personal views of the author, which do not purport to represent the view of Poland’s Ministry of Finance. In the judgement in X GmbH (Case C-135/17), on 26 February 2019, the CJEU for the first time examined a compatibility of CFC rules with the EU primary law to the extent of…

The recent (February 2019) OECD document for public consultation introduced two proposals to address the challenges of taxation, the first one is the revised profit allocation and nexus rules in the digital economy (Section 2) and the second one is the global anti-base erosion proposal (Section 3). Even though the document is titled challenges of…

The text represents the personal views of the author, which do not purport to represent the view of Poland’s Ministry of Finance. In the judgement in X GmbH (Case C-135/17), on 26 February 2019, the CJEU for the first time examined a compatibility of CFC rules with the EU primary law to the extent of…

In a little more than one week we saw a series of judgments and a European Commission decision that may again test the limits of the European Union’s state aid system in its application to matters of direct taxation. On March 7, 2019 the Commission started a formal state aid investigation into the tax deduction…

Jonathan Schwarz has already briefly discussed the CJEU’s judgment in the “Danish Beneficial Ownership Cases” (C-115/16, C-118/16, C-119/16, C-299/16 and C-116/16 and C-117/16), noting that the cases “represent a landmark on beneficial ownership” and comparing them to recent international tax law jurisprudence, concluding that the “voyage of discovery is certainly not at and end”. In…

Intertax dedicates its second issue of 2019 – another special issue – to taxing the digital economy, with seven articles contributing to the scientific and policy debate at the highest level. They are the outcome of again excellent and multidisciplinary research on the topic, by economists and lawyers, with international and European Union insights (see…

Lawyers across Europe holding their breath while awaiting the General Court’s ruling on the Belgian Excess Profits case were doubtlessly disappointed. On Valentine’s Day, the General Court reminded the European Commission that “tough love” is always a possibility, but the Commission’s defeat is no mortal blow. Its decision was annulled on more or less “technical”…

The Debate What makes a tax system competitive? How can countries multiply the competitiveness of the existing system? These question-marks are attracting substantial research by today’s policy makers, at national and international level as well as by business lobbyists. Most importantly, their potential replies entail significant impact for taxpayers and the society in general. Indicatively,…