European Corporate Tax
Full course description
The course “European Corporate Taxation” invites its students to study advanced topics of EU tax law in direct tax matters with a strong focus on business taxation. The topics that will be covered in this course include - inter alia - the different sources of EU law and their interpretation from a tax perspective, outbound and inbound issues of domestic tax law provisions in an EU law context, the application of directives, especially the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, Merger Directive, Interest & Royalties Directive and Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive, anti-abuse provisions, state aid, procedural EU law and fundamental rights.
While the course covers a wide range of important topics in the area of EU law in relation to corporate taxation, it does not aim to be comprehensive. Instead, the course aims to provide students with the necessary theoretical background and legal skills to further develop their knowledge independently or in other advanced courses. This course intends to improve legal thinking, research skills and legal argumentation, and therefore goes beyond a mere practical or technical application of the law. This also means that many of the cases will not have a clear-cut solution.
Teaching methods:
PBL, Lectures, Tax Debates
Assessment methods:
Written Exam, Tax Debate
Course objectives
- The student is able to demonstrate a systematic understanding of EU law in the area of corporate taxation.
- The student has the capacity to identify current issues in the field of EU law and provide solutions for the existing challenges, such as solutions for different types of potential infringements of domestic tax law with EU law.
- The student is capable of critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of existing EU law problems and new complex ideas.
- The student has the skills to develop sound legal arguments and solutions in complex cases based on own research and knowledge.
- The student is able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of different arguments in complex cases of EU law applied in the field of corporate taxation.
- The student can clearly express his/her solutions, arguments and views on EU tax law matters during high-level discussions.
- The student has the knowledge and learning skills essential for the continuation of his/her Master studies.
Prerequisites
The course “European Corporate Taxation” is a compulsory course in the International and European Tax Law LL.M. track. Students are assumed to be familiar with the structure of (their) national tax systems. Students who have earned an LL.B. in “Fiscaal Recht” or a B.Sc. in “Fiscal Economics” at Maastricht University have followed compulsory courses that cover this prerequisite. Maastricht LL.B. graduates in “European Law School” who took the electives “Concepts of Income and Business Taxation” (TAX3009) and “International and European Tax and Customs Law” (TAX3013) as well as all students coming from abroad will be prepared for this course by following the course “Fundamentals of International Taxation” (TAX4010).
Recommended reading
In general, the literature needed for the course will be electronically available. A recommendation for printed legal texts will be provided in due time.