Ebook: A Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base for Europe — Eine einheitliche Körperschaftsteuerbemessungsgrundlage für Europa

Preface This book contains the proceedings of the International Tax Conference on the c- th th mon consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) that was held in Berlin on 15 – 16 may 2007. The conference was jointly organised by the German Federal Ministry of Finance, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, and the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, Munich. More than 250 participants from all over Europe and other regions, scholars, politicians, business people and tax administrators, discussed the Eu- pean Commission’s proposal to establish a CCCTB. Three panels of tax experts evaluated the common tax base with respect to structural elements, consolidation, allocation, international aspects and administration. The conference made clear that the CCCTB has the potential to overcome some of the most intriguing problems of corporate income taxation within the Common Market. Common tax accounting rules substantially reduce compliance and administrative costs. Consolidation of a group’s profits and losses effects cro- border loss compensation which removes a major tax obstacle for European cro- border investment. At the same time, tax planning with respect to financing and transfer pricing is pushed back within the European Union. Moreover, as far as the CCCTB applies, member states are able to remove tax provisions that are targeted at cross border tax evasion and that might be challenged by the jurisdiction of the Eu- pean Court of Justice.

The introduction of the "Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base" as a means for an efficient and equitable taxation of multinational enterprises in Europe represents the most important issue of European business taxation. Starting in 2001, the Commission and the Member States have cooperated in order to develop an innovative technique for the measurement and the allocation of business profits within the European Union. This venture is not only the most ambitious political project of the current European Commission, it also challenges traditional legal and economic concepts of business taxation. This book contains the proceedings of an International Tax Conference, organised under the auspices of the German Presidency in the European Union and designed in cooperation with the Centre for European Economic Research (Mannheim) and the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law (Munich) including presentations from European and American academics and tax practitioners.

Die Einführung einer einheitlichen Körperschaftssteuerbemessungsgrundlage als Mittel zur effizienten wie auch gerechten Besteuerung internationaler Unternehmen in Europa hat größte Bedeutung für die europäische Unternehmensbesteuerung. Dieses Buch setzt sich umfassend mit dem in Kooperation der Kommission mit den Mitgliedsstaaten seit dem Jahre 2001 verfolgten Projekt auseinander, das traditionelle rechtliche und wirtschaftliche Konzeptionen zur Unternehmensbesteuerung in Frage stellt.