A few months ago I wrote two blogs about the implications of the Court of Justice finding that there is in fact an EU arm’s length principle in the ongoing tax rulings cases. The content of those blogs has now morphed into a lengthier article which has just been published in European Taxation. The abstract for the article reads as follows:

“A question that has arisen in the cases concerning tax rulings that have been brought by the European Commission is whether or not the arm’s length principle is an autonomous standard under EU law. This article seeks to explain why there is no autonomous EU arm’s length principle, or, if there were one, that this would have profound constitutional implications. In short, an EU arm’s length principle would drastically undermine the fundamental constitutional principle that taxes must be levied with the consent of the national legislature.”