Multinational tax avoidance vs. European Comission

Abstract

This paper deals with recent actions of the Commission with respect to EU State Aid rules. The Commission is looking at the compliance with EU State Aid rules of certain tax practices in some Member States in the context of aggressive tax planning by multinationals, with a view to ensure a level playing field. A number of multinational companies are using tax planning strategies to reduce their global tax burden, by taking advantage of the technicalities of tax systems, and substantially reducing their tax liabilities. This aggressive tax planning practice erodes the tax bases of Member States, which are already financially constrained.

Keywords

• State Aid
• tax planning
• tax ruling
• investigation
• Commission