Alternative Dispute Resolution and Tax Disputes

The increased complexity of international tax rules since the inception of the BEPS project created the need for alternative dispute resolution. This realisation has led both the international community and European Union institutions to expand on the possibilities for intergovernmental mechanisms to address diverging interpretation of treaty rules by tax administrations in treaty partner states. These give rise to many questions on the implementation and integration of the new rules into domestic (court) procedures, their correct interpretation, and best practices in their application by tax officials, lawyers and arbitrators.
This book addresses these questions in a holistic manner, starting with a comprehensive analysis of existing tax treaty norms and their practical application in MAP and arbitration procedures (Chapters 1–4). In its second part, it offers a timely expert analysis of primary and secondary EU law rules on tax dispute resolution, detailing the specifics of Directive 2017/1852 as well as their interaction with EU general principles, fundamental rights and internal market norms (Chapters 5–6).
Next, Chapters 7–9 consider the taxpayer’s position in the primarily administrative dispute resolution process, focussing on taxpayer rights, the domestic legal remedies relevant to the implementation and review of MAPs and the merits of mediation as a tool for taxpayers to resolve disputes with tax administrations. Finally, the fourth part of this book (Chapters 10–13) considers the relevance for tax disputes of mechanisms found in trade and investment law, both as a source of insight for the improvement of tax-specific procedures and as mechanisms that can be applied directly to tax disputes.