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BOOK REVIEW INTRODUCTION TO EUROPEAN TAX LAW: DIRECT TAXATION 2nd edition Editors: Michael Lang, Pasquale Pistone, Josef Schuch, Claus Staringer Spiramus ISBN: 978-1907444-11-1 www.spiramus.com A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR PRACTITIONERS THROUGH THE COMPLEXITIES OF EUROPEAN TAX LAW An Appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers For those of you who are experts either in European law, or tax law, but not both, we would certainly recommend this book from Spiramus publishing. Now in its second edition, it’s designed to address the needs of students and scholars as well as practitioners who may initially feel a bit daunted by European tax law and require expert guidance through its complexities. Basically ‘Introduction to ‘European Tax Law: Direct Taxation’ is targeted at two kinds of practitioners: tax law experts who seek greater familiarity with the problems of compatibility with European law…and those with expertise in European law generally who wish to enhance their understanding of European tax law specifically. Acquiring such expertise is almost undoubtedly a good idea in furthering the future progress of your career, as European law is fast emerging as a strategic element in international tax planning pertaining to cross-border commerce anywhere in the EU. The book originated as a joint project conducted at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law (WU) in Vienna and brings together in one handy volume the work of the nine expert researchers who contributed. The new second edition is an augmented update of the first, with additional flow charts and a Table of ECJ case law as well as Tables of Equivalences of Relevant Treat Provisions for Direct Taxation. In our opinion, the key to the subject (which typically the EU tends to present as more abstruse and opaque than it ideally ought to be) is in Vanessa Englmair’s essay on Page 43 which in part discusses ‘The Fundamental Freedoms’: namely, the free movement of goods, the free movement of workers, the freedom of establishment, the freedom to provide services and the free movement of capital. ‘It is the last four fundamental freedoms,’ she says, (that) ‘in particular have an impact of direct taxation.’ We would have thought that a clear statement such as this should really function as an introduction to the entire volume, for surely in one way or another, it links all the commentary on direct taxation contained therein! The book nevertheless is a worthy compilation of valuable and insightful research. Practitioners and academics throughout Europe should therefore find it a most worthwhile acquisition for their law and tax library.

2023-03-08 13:46