Abuse of Law in European Taxation

This book explores the meaning and the impact of the concept of abuse of law in European taxation. Fighting abusive arrangements has gained prominence along three different dimensions: as a methodological tool to constrain access to tax benefits under EU law, as a ground of justification for disadvantageous treatment of cross-border activities and investment, and as a policy goal underlying recent EU tax legislation. The contributors to this book—leading academics and practitioners from different European countries—discuss the most burning issues concerning the prohibition of abuse in tax matters. Starting from a general clarification of notions like ‘tax avoidance’ and ‘aggressive tax planning’ and informed by a deep-diving comparative analysis of the concept of ‘abuse’, the authors examine special anti-avoidance rules both in EU legislation on indirect taxes and under the existing EU corporate tax directives. Furthermore, the authors shed a critical light on the effect of European fundamental freedoms on national anti-abuse provisions. Last but not least the impact of the recently introduced Global Minimum Tax (GloBE) on the operation of anti-abuse rules receives scrutiny. In the end, the book tries to answer whether these different fields of application are informed by a unified notion of fiscal abuse. Given the world-wide momentum behind the fight against fiscal fraud and tax avoidance, the analytical approach of this book, bringing together different strands of legislature and jurisprudence, will be of substantial value for the work of both practitioners and scholars in the field of EU taxation.

Isabelle Richelle Graulich is Professor at HEC – Business School of the University of Liège, Co-Chair of the Tax Institute ULiège. She is also a Member of the Brussels Bar, chairing its Tax Law Committee. She is a member of the CFE Fiscal Committee, of the CFE ECJ Task Force and member of the IFA WIN Committee.

Wolfgang Schön is Director of the Department of Business and Tax Law at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich and Honorary Professor at Munich University. He is a Member of the BoT of the IBFD and an International Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation. He was Chairman of the Board of EATLP and the Vice-Chair of the Permanent Scientific Committee of IFA. Wolfgang Schön has been a visiting professor at Tilburg University, Vienna University of Business and Economics, NYU, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, UBC, the Universities of Antwerp and Liège and Bocconi University (Milan).

Edoardo Traversa is Full Professor of Tax Law and European Law at the Faculty of Law and Criminology - of which he currently serves as a Dean - and at the School of European Studies at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain). He is/has been a visiting professor at KU Leuven, Vienna University of Business and Economics, University of Luxembourg, University of Milan and University of Oxford. He is/has been a member of various advisory committees for EU and Belgian institutions, namely EU Platform for Good Tax Governance, EU VAT Expert Group and Belgian High Council of Finance. He also practices law at the Brussels Bar (Of Counsel, Arteo).