The EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive and the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan: Necessity and Adequacy of the Measures at EU level

Abstract

The article scrutinizes the recently adopted Directive 2016/1164/EU (also known as the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive) in the light of BEPS Actions 2, 3 and 4. For this particular purpose, after a brief overview of the general policy objectives of the Directive, the analysis is focused on the measures of the Directive that refers explicitly to the content of these actions, namely the interest limitation rule in Article 4, the Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) rules in Articles 7 and 8 and the anti-hybrid mismatch rule in Article 9. In respect to each of these provisions, the article illustrates to which extent they are consistent with the corresponding provisions in the BEPS Action Plan and whether they comply with the initial objects and scope of the Directive. Finally, it is assessed their compatibility with the EU primary law and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice.