Why this book?
The book provides a comprehensive analysis of the compatibility of turnover-based business taxes with various legal regimes that include primary EU law (specifically, State aid rules and the fundamental freedoms), secondary EU law (the VAT directive) and WTO law. Both the examined primary EU law and WTO law provisions essentially prohibit discrimination in the field of taxation; therefore, their similarities and divergences in terms of scope of application, methodological approaches and grounds for potential justifications are thoroughly analysed through the prism of turnover-based business taxes.
The author argues that a system of taxation that spreads the tax burden disproportionately potentially faces conflicts with the non-discrimination regimes under EU and WTO laws. It is particularly dubious whether such differential treatment can be justified by equity considerations such as the objective of taxation in accordance with the ability-to-pay principle when it comes to turnover-based taxes. Furthermore, the book highlights those interferences between the common VAT system and other turnover tax systems that are undesirable and pose a threat to the proper functioning of the VAT system of the European Union.
Also highlighted are the complications resulting from the coexistence of EU law and WTO law. On the one hand, such complications make it challenging for Member States to devise their tax systems in a manner that is both EU and WTO law-proof; on the other hand, they entail limitations on the effect of WTO law within the EU.
This book is part of the IBFD Doctoral Series
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Author(s)
Balázs Károlyi graduated as a lawyer (Master of Laws) from Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest and holds an LLM degree in international business taxation from Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He worked at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) as a research and teaching associate, and he obtained his PhD degree within the framework of the DIBT programme of the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law at WU. He gained professional experience in the field of international taxation at EY and PwC Hungary. Currently, he is a lecturer in the Financial Law Department of Eötvös Loránd University and an international tax expert at the Hungarian Ministry of Finance.