This thesis examines the concept of EU corporate tax abuse in light of the tensions between the protection of EU Fundamental rights and the susceptibility of those rights to abuse. Consideration is given to the major tax abuse practices and arrangements, accompanied by analyses of the responses of a selection of EU member states, and the role and impacts of judicial, state and commercial stakeholder interests. Consequent upon an examination of why past proposals have failed to attain either policy adoption or policy success, it is suggested that the legal concepts of abuse of rights, substance over form and proportionality may be of value in assessing and validating a corporate tax abuse proposal. It will be argued that Member State tax rules and policy initiatives to date have been unsuccessful in eradicating the effects of corporate tax abuse deriving from the exploitation of Fundamental Freedoms and that this failure is attributable to reasons of poor transactional data lineage and disclosure, unresolved political and judicial conflicts between balancing Member State rights with the Internal Market ideal and from a corporate culture that is incentivised to circumvent tax rules with limited recourse. Following an assessment of whether reform should focus on transactional based tax rules or on a broader legal framework to induce taxpayer behavioural changes, it is contended that EU corporate tax abuse can be addressed by rejecting the traditional ideals of tax harmonisation, formulary apportionment, and principles or rule-based tax law approaches as a complete solution. An effective scheme of reform should instead be based on Enhanced Disclosures and Attestation incorporating country-by-country reporting, additional reporting metrics and legal attestations, underpinned by civil and criminal penalties.

VAT plays a crucial role in creating a single internal market in the EU. However, the applicability of VAT rules in regard to the conduct of clinical trials and investigational medicinal products (IMPs) remains uncertain due to different interpretations among the Member States and the lack of case laws regarding clinical trials. This thesis examines the EU VAT Directive and the case law provided by the ECJ using a teleological approach to interpret the concept of medical care and identify applicable provisions for the conduct of clinical trials and transactions involving IMPs. The analysis provides insights into the VAT treatment of clinical trials conducted within the EU.

This thesis "Tax planning in corporation" puts brain to legal entity income tax and it is looking for possible solutions in tax planning in corporation. The first part deals with the tax theory, the other part is the theory of tax planning, comparison of tax regimes and tax policy and tax revenue by optimizing both internationally and in the local aspect. The last part discusses options for optimizing tax

Efter ett 10 årigt arbete mot att harmonisera direkt beskattning inom EU har Kommissionen lagt fram ett förslag till direktiv avseende en gemensam konsoliderad bolagsskattebas (CCCTB). Syftet med förslaget är att företag som bedriver gränsöverskridande verksamhet endast ska behöva följa en regeluppsättning samt arbeta gentemot en skattemyndighet. Tanken är att resultaten från alla koncernens bolag inom EU slås samman och sedan portioneras ut till koncernföretagen genom en fördelningsnyckel. Kommissionen har angivit att konsolideringen ska medföra att medlemsstaterna kan konkurrera på lika villkor och att fördelningen av skattebasen ska ske rättvist mellan medlemsstaterna. Det finns medlemsstater som är osäkra på förslagets konsekvenser och medlemsstaternas konkurrensmöjligheter efter förslagets antagande. Därav, är syftet med uppsatsen att utreda om fördelningsnyckeln i förslaget medför att skattebasen fördelas rättvist mellan medlemsstaterna genom att medlemsstaterna har möjlighet att konkurrera på lika villkor på den inre marknaden. Fördelningsnyckeln består av tre komponenter; arbetskraft, tillgångar och försäljning. Den gemensamma skattebasen portioneras ut till företagen i relation till företagets andel av koncernens totala andel av komponenterna. Därefter har medlemsstaterna rätt att beskatta andelen tillhörande företagen etablerade i medlemsstaten med den nationella skattesatsen. Uppsatsen innehåller en analys avseende de beståndsdelarna i fördelningsnyckelns komponenter som kan tänkas påverka medlemsstaternas möjlighet att konkurrera på lika villkor. Uppsatsen diskuterar hur beståndsdelarna påvekar konkurrensen samt i vissa fall ges förslag på förändringar som kan leda till att komponenten medför att medlemsstaterna kan konkurrera på lika villkor och därmed erhålla en rättvis fördelning av skattebasen. / After 10 years of work towards harmonization of direct taxation within EU the Commission has proposed a directive on a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB). The aim of the proposal is that companies who engage in cross-border activities only need to comply with one set of rules and work towards one tax authority. The idea is that the result from all companies inside EU within the group should be pooled and then portioned out to the individual companies through an allocation formula. The Commission has stated that the consolidation shall result in that member states can compete on equal terms and that the tax base is apportioned fairly between the member states. However, there are member states that are doubtful of the consequences of the proposal and the member states competitive opportunities after the adoption. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine if the allocation formula in the proposal result in that the tax base are apportioned fairly between the member states through the member states possibility to compete on equal terms within the internal market. The formula for apportionment consist of three components; labor, assets and sales. The common tax base will be portioned out to the companies in relation to the share of the company compared to the total share of the group of each component. Then, the member states have the right to tax the share that belongs to the companies that are established within the member state with the national tax rate. The thesis contains an analysis of the elements in the components of the allocation formula that could affect the opportunity of the member states to compete on equal terms. The thesis discusses how the elements affect the competition and in certain cases suggestions of changes in the elements are given that could lead to that the component result in that the member states can compete on equal terms and thereby hold a fair share of the tax base.

Modern technologies change economic relations in society and gradually transform the legislative framework. Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies are probably one of the most striking examples. Although they increase in value and are widely accepted as means of payment by major corporations, many EU member states are just starting to implement solutions to regulate their use, including in terms of taxation. At the same time, the EU fails to introduce a unified approach to the taxation of cryptocurrency transactions in its common economic area. Accordingly, the question arises as to whether the unified approach is justified, given the example of individual member states. The analysis of German, French, and Italian legislation showed that each state has a different approach to understanding the essence of cryptocurrencies. For example, Germany and France rely on the definition of “virtual currency” set forth in EU Directive 2015/849. However, while Germany uses the “cryptoassets” term, France uses the more general “digital assets” concept. In turn, Italy hasn’t enshrined yet any clear definition of cryptocurrencies in its legislation. This may lead to contradictions when considering international cases in the EU. Differences in understanding the essence of cryptocurrencies inevitably lead to differences in taxation approaches. On the one hand, Germany, France, and Italy recognise the validity of ECJ judgment in case C-264/14, exempting cryptocurrency transactions from VAT. On the other hand, while in Germany the profit from cryptocurrency trading is included in total personal income, thus, changing the progressive tax rate, this option is not possible for occasional transactions in France and is wholly excluded in Italy. Moreover, French law provides tax exemption for crypto-to-crypto exchange transactions. In Italy, this approach is accepted in practice, although not covered by the law. In turn, in Germany, taxes are levied on any transactions, which complicates the process of calculating the tax and creates uncertainty in specific issues, such as staking. Differences in the taxation of cryptocurrency transactions pose a question of the possibility of legal harmonisation, which is justified due to the underdevelopment of the principles of taxation of cryptocurrency transactions at the level of individual EU members. However, as a more correct solution, it is proposed to take measures to harmonise legislation based on directives, as this will allow avoiding an adverse impact on the fiscal sovereignty of the EU members.