PP982
Analítico de Periódico
ZANNONI, Diego
Squaring the circle of double taxation in the European Union / Diego Zannoni
Il Diritto dell'Unione Europea, n.3-4 (2021), p.615-645
DIREITO COMUNITÁRIO, DUPLA TRIBUTAÇÃO, DISCRIMINAÇÃO FISCAL, TRIBUNAL DE JUSTIÇA DA UNIÃO EUROPEIA (TJUE)
In recent years the economic world has become globalised, mobile and characterised by an increase in tax competition between countries. The multiplication of international transactions and the introduction by States of anti-avoidance measures in order to protect their tax base and seek new sources of revenue have increased the phenomenon of double taxation. The risk of unrelieved double taxation of cross-border economic activities is particularly relevant in the EU, stretched as it is to create a common market. However, negative integration has turned out to be almost toothless regarding non-discriminatory double taxation, and substantive positive integration may well be quite some time off. This paper shows that double taxation raises potentially far-reaching issues and requires pondering over the distribution of competences between Member States and the EU, the relations between taxation and fundamental freedoms and the interaction between tax agreements concluded by Member States and EU law. The purpose is to critically assess the state of the art in the matter of double taxation in the light of European Court of Justice case law and Member State practices and to propose possible developments which could help to overcome the present stalemate.