Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS): impact for European and international tax policy

In 2015, the G20/OECD delivered its long awaited final reports relating to the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project. The BEPS initiative aims at putting in place a «level playing field» founded on coherence, substance and transparency. At the level of the European Union, the BEPS action plan is also being mirrored by comparable initiatives designed to achieve « fairer, simpler and more effective corporate taxation » within the internal market. The Anti Tax Avoidance Package released in January 2016 expresses this political will. Moreover, several recent investigations have marked a (re)evolution of State aid rules. While these developments support the eradication of what is now called « aggressive tax planning », tensions however do exist between this policy objective and the fundamental freedoms. This raises the question of whether the intended international level playing field will actually be able to be achieved or whether, in the end, a different and more favorable framework will apply between EU Member States. Hence, a possible « fragmentation » of the BEPS initiative is beginning to capture serious critical attention. This book, which includes the contributions of renowned experts of the « international tax family », critically discusses key BEPS actions items and also puts them into perspective with EU law, in particular the fundamental freedoms and State aid rules