National Tax Law – Under Influence of EU Rules for Freedom of Movement of Goods

This article deals with the European Union (EU) law issues that an EU Member State must be aware of when introducing national taxes.

In principle, fiscal powers lie with the individual EU Member States, but membership of the EU involves obligations to comply with a number of rules. The EU framework for drawing up and implementing tax legislation is defined in the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU), secondary EU law, the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) and the European Commission's implementing decisions. The focus of this article is in an analysis of the EU rules which Member States must comply with when introducing a tax or charge. At the same time, the article will briefly illustrate the possibilities for obtaining approval of tax arrangements that clearly constitute a State aid scheme. The provisions in the TFEU that are relevant in this connection are Article 30 and Articles 34-36, on the free movement of goods, Article 107 on State aid, and Article 110 on fiscal provisions.