3 - The Court of Justice and the Development of EU Corporate Tax Law

Summary

The Court’s general methodology in direct tax cases was considered in Chapter 3. The application of the various fundamental freedoms in the context of direct tax law were examined. Chapter 3 identified some trends and ad hoc principles that have developed in the Court’s case law. The status of tax treaties and of the OECD Model Tax Convention in the Court’s jurisprudence was also examined. It was shown that even though the Court of Justice is generally reluctant to consider the overall situation in which a national measure is applied and often ignores out-of-state benefits or burdens, tax treaties have been interpreted as forming part of the (domestic) legal context in which the measure arises. The unsatisfactory nature of the litigation process was also discussed in Chapter 3.