Tax Nexus and Jurisdiction in International and EU Law

Since the foundation of the international tax regime, the concept of “nexus” has played a key role in the developments of international and EU tax law. The exercise of fiscal sovereignty requires a connecting factor, or nexus, between the taxable event and the state collecting the tax, which may take different forms, with residence and source being the most common criteria. In the wake of the BEPS initiative, the debate around nexus has been revived due to the proliferation of aggressive tax planning strategies, the ever-increasing exploitation of intangibles by MNEs and the use of base and conduit companies. Under EU law, the nexus has acquired special significance with regard to the territorial application of common EU tax rules contained in EU corporate income tax directives, VAT directives or even customs duties regulations, as well as in relation to the tax-based resources of the EU budget.

This book is composed of 11 chapters, written by established and uprising scholars from different EU Member States. They comprehensively discuss the foundations of the jurisdiction to tax and the forms of nexus requirements in international and EU tax law. The purpose of the book is to provide academics, tax authorities and practitioners with a comprehensive examination of the nexus by distinguishing all the relevant concepts according to the different taxes that come into play from both a theoretical and a practical perspective, with special attention paid to the latest developments, in particular, the OECD’s Pillar One and Two initiatives. It is based on the presentation made during the 15th GREIT conference, organized by Edoardo Traversa and hosted by the Research Center on Law, Economy and Society (CRIDES) of UCLouvain (Belgium)