The aim of this paper is to establish whether VAT place of supply rules are more effective allocation rules than international tax rules currently governing income taxation. This is done through the analysis of the “place where the activity is effectively carried out” (PWAECO) and the...

In most countries applying a VAT system, the activities and transactions undertaken by public sector bodies are not subject to full taxation. The rationale usually invoked to justify lack of full taxation is of a mixed conceptual and political kind. On one hand, there is a view that the...

Transactions in shares are exempt under Article 135(1)(f) of the Common VAT System Directive. However, in practice, the legal regime applicable to shares is based not on the interpretation of one single provision of the Directive, but rather on the joint interpretation of various inter-connected...

The Court of Justice has been alluding to abuse and abusive practices in its rulings for more than thirty years. For a long time however the significance of these references was unclear. Not many commentators delved into this issue, and the few that did doubted whether the references by the...

The taxation of financial services is one of the most vexing aspects of a Value Added Tax (VAT). Conceptually, VAT should apply to any fee for service but where financial services are concerned there is a difficulty in identifying the taxable amount, i.e. the value added by financial...

This paper proposes a new framework to assess the impact of Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) jurisprudence on Internal Market-related areas, by considering whether the jurisprudence of the Court on corporate taxation fulfils the constitutional mandate, as set-out in the European...

From the outset, turnover taxes have played a fundamental role in the European integration process. Harmonisation of these taxes was perceived an integral part of achieving a common market, and for this reason it was given priority. Over forty years since the introduction of a common VAT system,...

On February 2006 the Court of Justice delivered its eagerly awaited ruling in Halifax, a case concerning the interpretation of EU secondary legislation on VAT. The judgment represented the culmination of a long process, with the Court referring for the first time to the 'principle of prohibiting...