Legitimacy of Tax Policies and Acts Devised by International Organizations

This special issue of the Erasmus Law Review is dedicated to the legitimacy of tax policies and acts devised by international organizations

Introduction: Company Tax Integration in the European Union – A Necessary Step to Neutralise ‘Excessive’ Behaviour within the EU?

__Abstract__ This special issue of the Erasmus Law Review is the result of an interdisciplinary workshop on ‘Company Tax Integration in the European Union – a Necessary Step to Neutralise “Excessive” Behaviour within the EU?’, held at the Erasmus School of Law in June 2013 and organized by the Foundation European Fiscal Studies in co-operation with Erasmus Law Review. A topic currently attracting considerable public attention, not least because of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project of the OECD instigated by the G20. During the past decades there has been intensive tax competition between EU Member States for attracting capital triggered inter alia by the four freedoms as laid down in the European treaties. Even though competition is widely seen as beneficial to society, in case of inter-jurisdictional tax competition this may not always be the case. The possible negative effects of inter-jurisdictional tax competition and aggressive tax planning by multinational companies on state’s tax revenue may lead to a shift of the tax burden onto less mobile activities and onto consumption in order to keep a state’s public finances stable. In the end a jurisdiction’s tax system may become distorted (inefficient) and distribution unfair. In order to neutralize the negative effects of harmful tax competition and aggressive tax planning, one might be of the opinion that integrating company taxes within the EU would be the only way forward

Telewerken vanuit de Caribische jurisdicties van het Koninkrijk:Kansen en bedreigingen vanuit fiscaal perspectief

In juni 2020 is prof. mr. dr. A.C.G.A.C. (Arnaud) de Graaf benoemd tot buitengewoon hoogleraar Internationaal Belastingrecht aan de Universiteit van Curaçao. Naar aanleiding van zijn benoeming sprak De Graaf op 19 oktober 2021 zijn oratie uit met als titel ‘Telewerken vanuit de Caribische jurisdicties van het Koninkrijk: kansen en bedreigingen vanuit fiscaal perspectief’. De tekst van zijn oratie is in geactualiseerde vorm in deze bijdrage weergegeven.Met het uitbreken van de coronapandemie legden landen bewegingsbeperkingen op aan burgers. Vooral diegenen werkzaam in de financiële en zakelijke dienstverlening en voor overheden konden via telewerken hun werkzaamheden ondanks deze beperkingen (nagenoeg) ongestoord blijven uitoefenen. Digitalisering maakte het voor hen mogelijk om plaatsonafhankelijk te werken. Met het langzaamaan verdwijnen van de restricties willen westerse samenlevingen de voordelen van telewerken behouden. Deze ontwikkelingen bieden volgens De Graaf kansen voor kleine eilandstaten in ontwikkeling. Inkomende buitenlandse kenniswerkers met buitenlandse opdrachtgevers kunnen een bijdrage leveren aan de economische groei vande Caribische jurisdicties van het Koninkrijk zonder dat zulke inkomende telewerkers een directe bedreiging vormen voor lokale werknemers. Via, bijvoorbeeld, een uitbreiding van de huidige penshonadoregeling zouden Curaçao en Sint Maarten in de visie van De Graaf zich bij telewerkers in de kijker kunnen spelen. Hij verwacht niet (direct) dat deze landen daar door anderen op zullen worden aangesproken. Het heffingsrecht komt aldus De Graaf immers toe aan de landen waar de werkzaamheden fysiek worden uitgeoefend en een verschuiving van het heffingsrecht is op de korte noch de middellange termijn te verwachten. Daarnaast wijst De Graaf op het feit dat verschillende westerse landen voor inkomende ultravermogenden en mobieleveelverdieners fiscaal een aanzienlijk aantrekkelijkere regeling hebben

ATA Directive: Some Observations regarding formal Aspects

In this article the authors analyse to what extent the objectives of the Council of the European Union (EU) and the EU Commission are effectively realized through the ATA Directive. Authors believe that the choice for a Directive is likely not the most effective, while for a substantial period potentially resulting in legal uncertainty regarding the scope of the Directive’s terminology and provisions. The relationship with existing international (tax) treaty obligations is complex as well as with existing income tax Directives. Moreover, the choice for a Directive puts the tax authorities – who have the primary initiative in applying its provisions – in a relative weaker position since under EU law they cannot unlike taxpayers directly apply the Directive’s provisions. Finally, it can be questioned where local tax authorities have the initiative, whether the EU Commission review and monitoring process will be sufficient to safeguard a consistent application of the Directive’s provisions within the EU, creating a level playing field. In view of this, authors conclude that a Regulation or alternatively a peer review mechanism may result in less legal uncertainty and a more effective mechanism to realize the Council of the EU and the EU Commission’s objectives

Entanglements of creative agency and digital technology : a sociomaterial study of computer game development

Digital technology, with its distinctive characteristics that result from the fundamental process of digitalization that underpins it, is seen as fundamentally altering processes of creativity. However, we currently have limited understanding of creativity in relation to the development of digital technology. Computer game development, with its combination of esthetic, affective and cultural use features and highly sophisticated digital technologies, is a valuable setting for investigating these issues. In this paper, we explore how computer games are shaped through the interplay between the creative intentions of developers and the digital technologies involved in their production and playing. Drawing on in-depth studies conducted at three leading computer game development studios and a leading producer of the software system used in game development, this paper shows how the game developers' creative ideas for imagined novel game-playing experiences relate to a) the development of relevant digital technologies, and b) the emergence of new game development practices. The article goes on to propose a view of creativity as an on-going flow that, following an initial ‘creative impulse’, ripples through the sociomaterial entanglements of a particular setting, reconfiguring them in the process and spreading out in time and space in often unexpected ways

Single-cell transcriptomics links loss of human pancreatic β-cell identity to er stress

The maintenance of pancreatic islet architecture is crucial for proper β-cell function. We previously reported that disruption of human islet integrity could result in altered β-cell identity. Here we combine β-cell lineage tracing and single-cell transcriptomics to investigate the mechanisms underlying this process in primary human islet cells. Using drug-induced ER stress and cytoskeleton modification models, we demonstrate that altering the islet structure triggers an unfolding protein response that causes the downregulation of β-cell maturity genes. Collectively, our findings illus-trate the close relationship between endoplasmic reticulum homeostasis and β-cell phenotype, and strengthen the concept of altered β-cell identity as a mechanism underlying the loss of functional β-cell mass