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Horizontal Tax Coordination

(Last reviewed: 1 April 2012)

Editors

Michael LangPasquale Pistone

Josef SchuchClaus Staringer

Preface

This book is the outcome of a research project which the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law of the

WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) was able to organize through the support of the European

Science Fund (ESF). From 10 to 11 November 2010, top-class tax experts from 11 countries from different

continents were brought together at the Institute. The aim of this research project was to analyse decisions of

national courts regarding horizontal tax coordination and, ultimately, to compare those decisions.

Within the European Union, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has played an important coordination role for

more than 25 years. In this respect the ECJ stood in for the European legislator, who in most areas of taxation is

hindered from performing the role of an active legislator due to the EU law requirement of unanimity. The ECJ

has based its reasoning primarily on the fundamental freedoms in order to impose restrictions on the legislative

powers of the Member States in the field of taxation. The General Report (Chap. 1) by Joachim Englisch shows

the extent to which the ECJ has taken this coordinating role as well as the extent to which it was either incapable

of doing so or did not accept this role.

Similar developments can be identified in many countries that are organized in a federal structure. In this

respect, national Supreme Courts have filled in for the national legislator. Accordingly, Supreme Courts assumed

coordination tasks in order to restrict tax jurisdictions of different regions. The legal basis in these states is

obviously completely different. However, the results of the courts are in many cases comparable. In the course of

our conference, we dealt with specific countries that have a federal structure: Australia (Peter Gerangelos),

Austria (Michael Lang and Lisa Paterno), Belgium (Edoardo Traversa and Barbara Vintras), Brazil (Luís Eduardo

Schoueri and Mateus Calicchio Barbosa), India (Sunil Gupta), Mexico (Santiago Solórzano Ureta and César

Augusto Domínguez Crespo), Russia (Danil Vinnitskiy), Spain (José Andrés Rozas), Switzerland (Madeleine

Simonek) and the United States (Walter Hellerstein).

The discussions during the conference in Vienna served as a basis for comparing the insights derived from the

different federal systems and to work out common ground as well as differences. Following the conference some

discussants made an extra effort to prepare papers in which they have dealt with some of the discussion drafts in

greater detail. These contributions by Thomas Dubut, Maximilian Haag, Walter Hellerstein, Peter Hongler,

Pasquale Pistone and Frans Vanistendael can be found in Part III of this book.

Both the content and preparation of the conference have been supported by the scientific staff of the Institute for

Austrian and International Tax Law, especially Mag. Veronika Daurer, Mag. Meliha Hasanovic and Mag. Lisa

Paterno. Special thanks goes to them and also to Mrs Renée Pestuka, who was responsible for the overall

organization of the conference. Margaret Nettinga has again carefully polished the contributions of this book from

a linguistic point of view. Many thanks are also given to IBFD for its cooperation and the swift realization of this

publication.

Michael Lang

Pasquale Pistone

Josef Schuch

Claus Staringer

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