Legal regulation of the tax policy in the european union

SUMMARY Legal regulation of tax policy in the European Union Main concepts: tax policy, tax harmonisation, tax coordination, harmonisation of direct taxes, harmonisation of indirect taxes, direct taxes, indirect taxes, Value Added Tax, excises, corporate tax, personal income tax. In this analysis it is important to examine peculiarities of tax harmonisation process in the European Union. Also attention is paid to a historical aspect of direct and indirect taxes and to the tax policy of European Union. The aim of this analysis is to reveal the historical aspect, nowadays application and future perspectives of main taxes of the European Union such as Value Added Tax, excises, corporate tax and personal income tax. Taxes in the European Union is politically sensitive area. Though member states gave some sovereignty in this area to this organisation, the competence of the European Union in this sphere is restricted. Properly functioning internal market inevitably leads to harmonisation of tax systems. On the other hand, overall harmonisation is not envisaged. The main problem arises from member states‘ objective to retain national sovereignty and from its‘ given competence to the European Union, In this reseach some hypothesis are raised: 1. indirect taxes are harmonized in the European Union level, but still it is not sufficient in creating properly functioning internal market, 2. There is no political will of member states to harmonise direct taxes. These hypothesis are verified from the very beginning of the European Community to current tax policy and its’ perspectives. It can be said, that at last these hypothesis were verified. The difficulties are governed not only by unwillingness of member states to refuse their sovereignty in the field of taxation, but also by problematical decision making process in European Council, which is difficult due to the principle of unanimity