Harmful Tax Competition and R&D : a Plausible Challenge for the European Union ?

Details

Supervisors

Traversa, Edoardo

Faculty

Faculté de droit et de criminologie

Degree label

Master [120] en droit

Abstract

The author of this paper is trying to approach the very broad issue of tax competition in the European Union. Indeed, like competition in the economic sector, it seems that States are conducting a fierce competition in order to attract revenue. To achieve that purpose, some of them have put in place very advantageous tax incentives notably the so-called « IP-Boxes ». Therefore, this paper is aimed at describing this tax incentive while replacing it in the general framework of the current trends in the international tax arena. The question the author has to cope with is the following: how the EU can tackle effectively the R&D-oriented harmful tax competition conducted by small economies like Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg without being able to rely on a 'real' attributed competence in direct taxation matters?