Attending students:
Course material provided by the lecturer and posted on Moodle platform.
Non-attending students:
O'Shea T., Understanding EU Tax Law, Avoir Fiscal Publications, 2020.
Learning Objectives
Gain knowledge of the purposes and functions of the legal framework governing tax law at national, EU and international level.
Prerequisites
Excellent knowledge of English.
Teaching Methods
Frontal teaching lesson.
Further information
Type of Assessment
The final exam will be oral.
It will consist of several questions on the topics and practical cases covered in class.
The evaluating parameters will be as follows:
- Accuracy of answers.
- Ability of exposition.
- Critical reasoning skills.
- Competence in the use of technical vocabulary.
Active participation in class will also be positively considered.
Course program
In the first part of this course, we shall start by introducing the concepts of "competence" and "compliance" within the EU legal framework.
As an example of how the EU exercised the competence that the Treaty endorsed the EU institutions within the direct tax area, we refer to the parent-subsidiary directive, the merger directive, interest and royalty directive, savings income directive, and mutual assistance directives.
We will then examine the concept of “compliance” that is laid down by the Court as follows:
“Although, as Community law stands at present, direct taxation does not as such fall within the purview of the Community, the powers retained by the Member States must nevertheless be exercised consistently with Community law” (Schumacker, C-279/93, § 21)
Moreover, we will see how Community law encompasses – of course – the freedoms (workers, capital, movement, services, establishment), and negative integration is all about eliminating domestic rules that constitute a restriction to the enjoyment of those freedoms.
We will then focus on the concept of “restrictions” and how they may or may not take the form of “discrimination on the grounds of nationality”, and, in particular, how the Court checks compliance with the freedoms from two different viewpoints, i.e.:
The viewpoint of the “host State”.
The viewpoint of the “origin State”.
In the second part of the course, we shall examine the topic of “justifications” the origins of which, in EU law, can be found in the European Treaties (EEC, EC and TFEU) and in the Dassonville and Cassis de Dijon judgments of the Court.
Sustainable Development Goals 2030
This course contributes to the achievement of the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for a Sustainable Development, with particular reference to goal nr. 16 – Peace, justice and strong institutions.