Internal market neutrality

The European Union (EU) comprises an internal market without borders. For direct tax purposes, however, the effective non-existence of borders is questionable. After all, the Court of Justice of the EU continuously judges that direct tax matters are still a concern for the individual Member States, even though the Member States do have to consider fundamental freedoms. In direct tax matters the concept of the ‘internal market’ hence reflects the co-existence of individual Member States’ interests instead of a regular internal market without (tax) boundaries. The research explores whether a real internal tax market could actually be established under the current acquis communautaire. In other words, if we would take the internal market as the starting point instead of a single Member State, would that affect direct tax provisions in a way that a more neutral solution would be possible within the EU internal market? This could result in a more neutral tax position for individual taxpayers with cross-border activities. Subsequently, the established principle of internal market neutrality is tested against different tax provisions. Firstly, the current position of the Court of Justice of the EU is summarized, followed by a research on how the answer would have been if the principle of internal market neutrality had been considered. Finally, several EU Directives in the field of direct taxation are tested against the principle of internal market neutrality as well. Dr J.J.A.M. (Jasper) Korving (1979) studied International and European Public Law (2002) and Tax Law (2005) at Tilburg University. He joined Deloitte in 2002 and currently works for Deloitte’s Tax Research Department in Rotterdam. Since 2014, he is also working for Maastricht University. He publishes regularly, mainly on EU law related topics, in Dutch and international magazines.