This article explores the real-world impact of Directive (EU) 2021/2101 on Public Country-by-Country (CbC) Reporting, with particular attention to how external stakeholders engage with and interpret the published data. It argues that multinational enterprises (MNEs) must not only comply with the disclosure obligations but also actively manage the narrative and reputational implications that arise in an environment of heightened tax transparency. The analysis identifies three principal risks for MNEs resulting from the Directive’s application and demonstrates that these risks stem from its legislative design. In light of this, the article stresses the importance of precise regulatory drafting to ensure legal certainty and a balance between transparency and MNEs’ fundamental rights – such as the freedom to conduct a business and property rights. Five structural shortcomings in the Directive are examined in detail, and recommendations are put forward to address them. These suggestions rely on a combination of hard law reforms and soft law guidance at EU level to mitigate the identified risks and enhance the Directive’s effectiveness.

This article provides a critical examination of the reliance on functional activity or conduct in the transfer pricing exercise. The changes made in the BEPS Project significantly boosted the focus on functional activity in assessing related-party transactions. This new approach is largely delivered in the “accurate delineation” process which is at the heart of the BEPS changes to the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. Under the new approach, the rights and obligations expressed in intercompany contracts are no more than the “starting point” in determining the transactional relationship between the parties, and those terms are subject to verification based on the actual conduct of the parties. The idea that legal/contractual arrangements can be modified – or constructed – based on the conduct of the parties is not new, and it is seen by many as a relatively uncontroversial idea. However, the conceptual, technical and practical challenges it poses have never been subject to any serious examination in the course of framing the relevant OECD guidance, contributing to an uncertain landscape in which the core principles being applied have become contested, and in which the standards to which taxpayers and tax authorities should expect to be held are difficult to discern. This article explores these themes, taking into account the historical development of the reliance on conduct, the current requirements and the experience of applying the conduct-based approach in practice.

During periods of sharp and significant interest rate increases implemented by the central bank, financial institutions have recorded substantial profits. These profits have prompted certain EU Member States to introduce windfall taxes on banks. Nevertheless, such taxes raise a number of legal concerns, as their compatibility with international law, EU law and constitutional principles remains subject to debate. Despite these legal complexities, windfall taxes are often presented as appropriate fiscal instruments in times when the redistributive function of taxation is particularly pressing. However, when considering windfall taxes specifically targeting banks, one may observe that beyond their redistributive objective, they may also serve a regulatory function. In this light, windfall taxes on banks could be conceived as fiscal policy tools complementary to monetary policy measures capable of enhancing the effectiveness of contractionary monetary decisions. The implementation of a windfall tax on banks with the explicit aim of complementing monetary policy decisions would, however, require legislative action at the EU level, which entails significant institutional and political challenges.

This article undertakes a comparative legal analysis of the three distinct sets of deemed supplier rules applicable to platforms under EU VAT law – article 9a of the VAT Implementing Regulation in connection to article 28 of the VAT Directive, and articles 14a and 28a of the VAT Directive – with particular attention to potential inconsistencies in their formulation that may infringe the principle of equality. It critically assesses whether the platforms that are all essentially in a comparable situation, given that they are burdened with deemed supplier rules, are nevertheless subject to divergent treatment. The article formulates targeted legislative recommendations aimed at harmonizing the deemed supplier regimes in the EU VAT system to ensure greater efficiency, legal certainty and equal treatment across sectors.

Acknowledging that traditional dispute prevention and resolution mechanisms alone cannot provide the tax certainty needed by businesses in an efficient manner, the authors highlight the key role that programmes such as Cooperative Compliance (CC), the International Compliance Assurance Programme (ICAP) of the OECD, the European Trust and Cooperation Approach (ETACA) of the EU Commission and the Finnish Cross-border Dialogue (FCBD) can play for this purpose. This article illustrates the main characteristics of a plethora of national CC programmes around the world as well as of cross-border risk assessment and assurance programmes (ICAP, ETACA and FCBD), it examines their positive aspects and benefits, the challenges that they present and elaborates on relevant legal considerations. Lastly, the authors identify the limits of existing domestic and cross-border risk assessment and assurance programmes, and propose a new approach to help address these limitations: multilateral CC (MCC) programmes that will provide tax certainty in respect of all tax aspects of large cross-border projects (project-related MCC or, simply, PMCC programmes).

In the era of global minimum taxes, the merit of any given national corporate income tax will depend on which governments will be collecting corporate tax revenues, and at whose expense. This marks a shift in focus away from a century-old baseline assumption: before this era, the likelihood that a corporation would face income tax at all was in no way assured, but now, any given corporate income stream will likely be subject to tax by some government, somewhere – if not yet in practice, presumably some time in the near future. This shift in assumption alters the terrain for normative policy analysis by centering questions that were formerly sidelined, especially respecting the impact of taxes on the international distribution of wealth among nations. This article examines the implications of this shift and shows why it leads to a clear understanding of corporate taxes as a key international wealth distribution tool.

This article critically examines climate change taxes, environmental pollution levies and related policies in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Sweden, assessing their design, implementation, economic impacts and efficacy in reducing carbon emissions and promoting green growth, while also analysing Mozambique's potential to adopt such strategies given its current absence of such taxes. Key performance indicators, including emission reductions and tax revenues, are analysed to gauge the effectiveness and limitations of each model. Sweden’s pioneering carbon tax demonstrates the intricate balance between economic growth and environmental targets, providing a well-documented case of both successes and trade-offs. The United Kingdom’s Carbon Price Floor, emissions trading system, Aggregates Levy and Climate Change Levy show a flexible yet complex approach that integrates various economic sectors. South Africa’s carbon tax, implemented within a developing economy context, sheds light on the socio-economic challenges and potential benefits of carbon taxation in emerging markets. In contrast, Mozambique – a low-income, climate-vulnerable country – offers a unique perspective with its existing environmental policies but lack of specific climate change tax measures, highlighting an area for potential climate change mitigation policy innovation.

Virtual real estate is a significant digital asset class in the metaverse, allowing users to own and trade land and structures similar to physical real estate. However, taxing these transactions poses challenges for governments, as existing frameworks do not address their complexities. This article explores the allocation of taxing rights concerning virtual real estate. It first identifies relevant taxable transactions and then examines the legal characterization and classifications under the OECD Model, including income from immovable property, business profits, royalties and capital gains. The study highlights how the intangible and decentralized nature of virtual real estate complicates traditional tax classifications and source taxation. Consequently, the article advocates for a unified, residence-based taxation approach, granting exclusive taxing rights to the country of residence of the income recipient. This framework aims to align tax policies with the technological substance of virtual real estate while ensuring compliance with international tax principles.

In recent years, many countries have introduced new anti-tax avoidance rules, which are often criticized for increasing tax complexity. Motivated by these concerns, our study investigates how the design of anti-tax avoidance rules and country characteristics are related to this perceived complexity. Based on hand-collected data for 57 countries, we find that most elements of anti-tax avoidance rules that are intended to be taxpayer friendly do not reduce perceived complexity. We show that taxpayer-friendliness is discussed and operationalized in different ways. For example, simplifying elements such as generous de minimis thresholds can limit the complexity of such rules, while adding supplementary taxpayer-specific components, such as the stand-alone entity exception to interest deduction limitations, does not reduce complexity. In a cross-country study, we find that controlled foreign corporation (CFC) rules are perceived as more complex in developing countries than in developed countries. Country case studies suggest that developing countries struggle with the information exchange required for CFC rules, making them more difficult to administer. By contrast, we find that general anti-avoidance rules (GAARs) are perceived as less complex in developing countries, presumably because they are often poorly enforced.

While theoretical studies suggest that capital income tax (CIT) has positive effects on economic growth, empirical research yields mixed results. This study aims to bridge the gap in existing literature by investigating the role of net taxes in explaining the impact of CIT on economic growth, focusing on the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) countries. Using a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and 2015 social accounting matrices (SAMs), simulations are conducted for the period 2023-2030. The findings reveal that most CEMAC countries experience a positive impact from indirect tax on commodities, but only Chad and Gabon exhibit positive effects from CIT. Notably, these countries have negative net taxes, leading to public deficits, which are offset by increases in CIT. The results highlight the potential for targeted investments in key sectors to leverage the positive impact of net tax on economic growth. Therefore, policymakers should consider granting more subsidies to firms to boost productivity and drive higher economic growth.