State Aid Law and Business Taxation

283 Pages·2016·3.65 MB·English

by  Isabelle Richelle

MPI Studies in Tax Law and Public Finance 6
Isabelle Richelle
Wolfgang Schön
Edoardo Traversa Editors
State Aid Law
and Business
Taxation
MPI Studies in Tax Law and Public Finance
Weitere Bndeindieser Reihe
http://www.springer.com/series/10393
MPI Studies in Tax Law and Public Finance
Volume 6
SeriesEditors
KaiA.Konrad
WolfgangSch€on
€
Isabelle Richelle (cid:129) Wolfgang Schon (cid:129)
Edoardo Traversa
Editors
State Aid Law and Business
Taxation
Editors
IsabelleRichelle WolfgangSch€on
TaxInstitute MaxPlanckInstitutefor
HEC-UniversityofLie`ge TaxLawandPublicFinance
Lie`ge,Belgium Munich,Germany
EdoardoTraversa
Faculte´dedroitetdecrimonologie
Universite´catholiquedeLouvain
Louvain-la-Neuve,Belgium
ISSN2196-0011 ISSN2196-002X (electronic)
MPIStudiesinTaxLawandPublicFinance
ISBN978-3-662-53054-2 ISBN978-3-662-53055-9 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-662-53055-9
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016955414
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Preface
InNovember2015,theMaxPlanckInstituteforTaxLawandPublicFinance,the
Universite´ CatholiquedeLouvainandtheTaxInstituteoftheUniversityofLie`ge
along with Leiden University and the University of Rennes convened two
interlinkedevents inthePalaisdes Acade´mies inBrusselstodiscuss fundamental
andspecificissuesofEuropeancompetitionlawinthefieldoffiscalaid.Theopen
conference“TaxationandEUStateAidLaw–CurrentPracticeandPolicyIssues”
was followed by the closed symposium “State Aid Law and Business Taxation:
SelectedIssues”.Thisvolumeconsistsofpapersandpresentationsdeliveredinthe
courseoftheconferenceandthesymposium.Itsgoalistoprovidethereaderwith
themostcurrentaccountofwherewecurrentlystandwithregardtotherelationship
between“businesstaxationandstateaidlaw”.
It is no secret that this area of European competition law has risen to global
prominence due to the procedures initiated by the European Commission against
several European Member States in the context of harmful tax competition and
aggressivetaxplanning.Butitisalsowellknownthattheinteractionbetweenstate
aid discipline and national tax legislation started several decades ago and both
extensiveCommissionpracticeandhighlysophisticatedCourtjurisprudenceinthis
fieldhavecontributedtotransformtheprohibitiononselective aidunderArt.107
(1)oftheTreatyontheFunctioningoftheEuropeanUnion(TFEU)notonlyintoa
substantial constraint to tax sovereignty in the Member States of the European
UnionbutalsointoapowerfulpolicytoolinthehandsoftheEuropeanCommission
(which can take action under Art. 107 and 108 of TFEU, without the necessity to
consult with the Council or to establish proceedings in the Court of Justice of the
European Union (CJEU)). In April 2016, the European Commission emphasized
thehighrelevanceofstateaidlawinthefieldofbusinesstaxationwhenitpublished
itslong-awaitednoticeonthenotionofstateaidundertheTreaty.
Against this background, this volume tries to present both foundational ques-
tions—regarding central notions like “advantage”, “selectivity” and “discrimi-
nation”—andrecentchallengesstemmingfromthepracticalapplicationofstateaid
control, e.g. in highly discussed sectors like energy taxation, research and
v
vi Preface
developmentincentivesorleasingtransactions.Giventhestateofthedebateinthe
EuropeanUnionandbeyond,mostcontributionsinthisvolumefocusondifferent
aspectsofinternationaltaxationseenthroughthelensofArt.107(1)oftheTFEU:
doubletaxationanddoublenon-taxation,taxavoidance,beneficialrulingpractice,
transfer pricing, harmful tax competition, the code of conduct and so on. In this
respect,thisvolumeclaimstocontainnotonlythemostrecentaccountofstateaid
disciplineinfiscalmattersatlargebutalsothefirstextensivemulti-voicedebateon
theinteractionbetweenstateaidlawandinternationaltaxcases.
Wewerehappythatmanyhigh-levelspeakersandfurtherparticipantsfromthe
EuropeanCommission,academicandjudicialinstitutionsandprivatepracticewere
willing to join us for two days, sharing their views and proposals for the future
developmentofthisarea.Theeditorsofthisbookhopethatthefindingspresented
inthisvolumearewellreceivedbyaninternationalaudience,givingrisetofurther
debate on the requirements of the European tax order when Member States are
willing to deliver aid through the tax code to the benefit of their national and
internationalbusiness.
Theeditorsexpresstheirgratitude toLeopoldoParadaforhisdiligentworkon
thepublicationofthisbook.
Lie`ge,Belgium IsabelleRichelle
Munich,Germany WolfgangSch€on
Louvain-la-Neuve,Belgium EdoardoTraversa
June2016
Contents
PartI Fundamentals
TaxLegislationandtheNotionofFiscalAid:AReviewof5Years
ofEuropeanJurisprudence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
WolfgangSch€on
StateAidandTaxation:SelectivityandComparabilityAnalysis. . . . . . 27
MichaelLang
TaxIncentivesUnderStateAidLaw:ACompetitionLawPerspective... 39
ThomasJaeger
ComparingCriteria:StateAid,FreeMovement,HarmfulTax
CompetitionandMarketDistortingDisparities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
PeterJ.Wattel
PartII InternationalTaxationandHarmfulTaxCompetition
ReformingtheCodeofConductforBusinessTaxationinthe
NewTaxCompetitionEnvironment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Vale`reMoutarlier
Anti-avoidanceMeasuresandStateAidinaPost-BEPSContext:
AnAttemptatReconciliation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
EdoardoTraversaandPierreM.Sabbadini
StateAidBenchmarkingandTaxRulings:CanWeKeepItSimple?. . . 111
RaymondLuja
DoubleTaxationRelief,TransferPricingAdjustments
andStateAidLaw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
WernerHaslehner
vii
viii Contents
DoubleTaxationRelief,TransferPricingAdjustmentsandState
AidLaw:Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
RitaSzudoczky
TheCatandthePigeons:SomeGeneralCommentson(TP)
TaxRulingsandStateAidAftertheStarbucksandFiatDecisions. . . . 185
PeterJ.Wattel
PartIII Sector-SpecificAspectsofPreferentialTaxation
EnergyTaxationandStateAidLaw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
MartaVillarEzcurra
IntellectualProperty,TaxationandStateAidLaw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Ce´cileBrokelind
TheRecoveryObligationandtheProtectionofLegitimate
Expectations:TheSpanishExperience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
JuanSalvadorPastoriza
Part I
Fundamentals