BEING DIRECT ABOUT EU TAX:
The debate begins with this valuable contribution

Voters always normally decide the result of the next General Election in UK on the basis of taxation policies as is proved every year when the political parties hold their annual conferences and tempers flare.

The ‘E’ word (anything “Europe”) has not really raised its ugly, controversial head in British politics since the demise of John Major’s government and the ineffectual UKIP organisation of flakes, so now is the time to re-consider the topic in the EU Law context.

Spiramus are to be congratulated on producing this complex short work of collected thoughts which adds considerable weight to the arguments on all sides. I am absolutely sure the issues will be rehearsed again and again when the issue of the EU figures at future elections and who controls the money! Lang and his team of editors have succeeded in their aim of giving an introduction to European direct taxation for learners and practitioners whatever the stance taken by the 10 essay writers.

The success of the book is that it does not focus on a specific national tax system but gives us 9 research essays from the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law (WU) in Vienna.

They comprise the following:

• the sources of EC Law Relevant Direct Taxation
• the Relevance of the Fundamental Freedoms for Direct Taxation
• The State Aid Provisions of he EC Treaty in Tax Matters
• The Parent-Subsidiary Directive
• The Merger Directive
• The Interest and Royalty Directive
• The Savings Directive
• The Directives on the Mutual Assistance in the Assessment and in the Recovery of Tax Claims in the Field of Direct Taxation, and
• the EC Arbitration Convention

There is massive, intricate detail, and the content is heavy throughout, but I found the most relevant chapters for me to be the future direction of European Tax Law contained in the Parent-Subsidiary and Merger Directives.

In simple terms the problem is the conflict between direct taxation falling within the competence of the Member States on the one hand, and the complete elimination of unfair economic double taxation and merger on the other. Even an examination of recent history of the relevant Directives shows that we have, at last, taken tentative steps towards an ordered approach for an eventual form of agreed direct taxation although Lang and Co can offer no conclusions and shouldn’t at this stage. That is clearly the right approach at the moment.

I was wondering whether I would come away with anything resembling a concrete conclusion or solution to the main issue without expecting one. However, that little ray of sunshine…hope… is there in the form of the Patrick Pansky’s critical issues on the final page referring to the Arbitration Convention.

The Convention is a mutual agreement procedure and, although not in a legal form, can be rightly seen as “a positive step forward in integration” and the removal of double taxation. The fact that these matters are even discussed at all is encouraging although I concede that it will be the latter half of this century before we see positive integration into one defined system for all Member States and I suspect we will eventually see tiers of taxation develop in the next 50 years from local tax, to Member State Tax and EU Direct Tax in bands.

My unfortunate conclusion is that if anything breaks up the EU at this stage in the century (apart from war), it will be a complete failure to agree these fiscal measures between the Member States.

In the words of a very wise (to some) old politician many years ago, we will have to ‘wait and see’, but this work is an invaluable contribution to the debate for years to come and I welcome its approach at the present time. ( )