La jurisprudence de la CJUE concernant la disposition anti-abus de la directive "fusions"

The fight against tax fraud and avoidance has become one of the main drivers of EU legislation and continues to influence the shaping of the case-law of the European Court of Justice in tax matters. The concept of abuse plays a key role in the interpretation of EU primary and secondary law and is even referred to in a number of provisions of EU tax legislation (harmonization directives, administrative cooperation and exchange of information). However, after almost 25 years of application by European and domestic courts and tax authorities, this apparently unifying function of the concept of abuse in tax matters raises a number of unresolved issues, creating significant legal uncertainty for taxpayers. The conference will gather together academics, public officials and practitioners to discuss the most recent issues concerning the prohibition of abuse in tax matters, as regards the application of fundamental freedoms, the EU corporate tax directives, including the recent Pillar 2 directive and the Unshell directive proposal, VAT and customs, exchange of information,. The conference will also address the latest implications of the notion of abuse of law on corporate tax planning and tax competition among Member States in the context of the international initiatives aiming at curbing base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) and improving global tax transparency (exchange of information).16. Peace, justice and strong institution

Losses – Marks&Spencer

This conference will explore the history, impact, and potential for further development of the CJEU’s and the EFTA Court’s landmark decisions relating to direct taxation

Lycopene isomerisation takes place within enterocytes during absorption in human subjects

Lycopene in fruits and vegetables occurs mostly (80-97%) in the all-E configuration, whereas a considerable proportion of lycopene in the human body is present as Z-isomers. The Z-isomers offer potentially better health benefits and show improved antioxidant activity in vitro when compared with the all-E-isomer. The absorption of dietary lycopene is a complex process involving transfer of the carotenoid from the food matrix into micelles, uptake by enterocytes, packaging into chylomicrons and finally secretion into plasma. Isomerisation could take place at any of these individual steps. By exploiting in vitro and in vivo models, we traced lycopene isomerisation during absorption using various methods to mimic gastric and duodenal conditions, incorporation into mixed micelles, absorption and metabolism by various Caco-2 cell clones, and performed a postprandial study in human subjects to identify the profile of lycopene isomers in plasma chylomicrons. We demonstrate that all-E-lycopene remains unchanged during its passage in the gastrointestinal tract, including its incorporation into mixed micelles. The key site of lycopene isomerisation is inside the intestinal cells resulting in 29% of lycopene as Z-isomers. Lycopene isomerisation in the various Caco-2 cell clones is consistent with that observed in human chylomicrons formed in a postprandial state. There is no selection in the release of lycopene isomers from enterocytes. Although there is a huge inter-individual variability of total lycopene absorption reported both in in vitro intestinal cell lines as well as in human chylomicrons, the lycopene isomer profile is quite simila

Abus de droit en droit européen - divergences ou convergences des concepts et politiques?

The fight against tax fraud and avoidance has become one of the main drivers of EU legislation and continues to influence the shaping of the case-law of the European Court of Justice in tax matters. The concept of abuse plays a key role in the interpretation of EU primary and secondary law and is even referred to in a number of provisions of EU tax legislation (harmonization directives, administrative cooperation and exchange of information). However, after almost 25 years of application by European and domestic courts and tax authorities, this apparently unifying function of the concept of abuse in tax matters raises a number of unresolved issues, creating significant legal uncertainty for taxpayers. The conference will gather together academics, public officials and practitioners to discuss the most recent issues concerning the prohibition of abuse in tax matters, as regards the application of fundamental freedoms, the EU corporate tax directives, including the recent Pillar 2 directive and the Unshell directive proposal, VAT and customs, exchange of information,. The conference will also address the latest implications of the notion of abuse of law on corporate tax planning and tax competition among Member States in the context of the international initiatives aiming at curbing base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) and improving global tax transparency (exchange of information).16. Peace, justice and strong institution

The Future of EU Tax Harmonisation

Since the treaty of Rome, the European Union has been granted harmonization powers in the field of taxation. As for indirect taxes first and then direct taxes, directives have been adopted, mainly in order to facilitate free movement of taxpayers within the internal market and to fight against tax fraud and avoidance. Recent developments, such as the OECD BEPS initiative and the creation of a global forum on taxation issues, in particular relating to digitalization, Brexit and the financial and environmental crisis, along with the structural difficulty to reach unanimous agreement in key areas such as corporate taxation, are influencing the way tax legislation is proposed and passed at the EU level. At the eve of a new term for the European Commission, Council and Parliament, it may be time to re-think the purpose and the means of harmonization in the field of taxation. The morning session will address general issues such as the origin and purpose of EU harmonization, the current legal framework for the adoption of EU tax rules, in particular the principles of proportionality and subsidiarity and the peculiarities of the decision making process. Finally, the relationship between tax harmonization and the reform of the EU budget will be discussed. The second session will be devoted to corporate taxation, including its digital dimension. The possibility of a comprehensive harmonization of corporate tax along the lines of the CCCTB project will be assessed taking into account international developments. The other issues addressed in this session are the compatibility between the EU harmonization process (and more broadly EU law) and the BEPS project as regards the fight against tax avoidance and finally the potential harmonization a EU level of rules regarding digital economy

Votre catalogue à l'ère du web 3.0. Cataloguer aujourd'hui...

Web de données, FRBR, modèles de données, LRM, RDA, Bibframe… De quoi ça parle, quels sont les impacts dans notre catalogue, suis-je réellement concerné·e ? Ces dernières années, différents concepts ont émergé, certains sont devenus familiers, d’autres restent un peu mystérieux… Cette journée d’étude est l’occasion de poser le cadre de réflexion de l’évolution des catalogues afin de comprendre pourquoi nos pratiques changent. C’est également le moment de découvrir les éléments à mettre en place pour se préparer et s’inscrire dans la dynamique de la transition

The proportion of lycopene isomers in human plasma is modulated by lycopene isomer profile in the meal but not by lycopene preparation

Dietary lycopene consists mostly of the (all-E) isomer. Upon absorption, (all-E) lycopene undergoes isomerisation into various (Z)-isomers. Because these isomers offer potentially better health benefits than the (all-E) isomer, the aim of the present study was to investigate if the profile of lycopene isomers in intestinal lipoproteins is affected by the profile of lycopene isomers in the meal and by the tomato preparation. Six postprandial, crossover tests were performed in healthy men. Three meals provided about 70% of the lycopene as (Z)-isomers, either mainly as 5-(Z) or 13-(Z), or as a mixture of 9-(Z) and 13-(Z) lycopene, while three tomato preparations provided lycopene mainly as the (all-E) isomer. Consumption of the 5-(Z) lycopene-rich meal led to a high (60%) proportion of this isomer in TAG-rich lipoproteins (TRL), indicating a good absorption and/or a low intestinal conversion of this isomer. By contrast, consumption of meals rich in 9-(Z) and 13-(Z) lycopene isomers resulted in a low level of these isomers but high amounts of the 5-(Z) and (all-E) isomers in TRL. This indicates that the 9-(Z) and 13-(Z) isomers were less absorbed or were converted into 5-(Z) and (all-E) isomers. Dietary (Z)-lycopene isomers were, therefore, differently isomerised and released in TRL during their intestinal absorption in men. Consuming the three meals rich in (all-E) lycopene resulted in similar proportions of lycopene isomers in TRL: 60% (all-E), 20% 5-(Z), 9% 13-(Z), 2% 9-(Z) and 9% unidentified (Z)-isomers. These results show that the tomato preparation has no impact on the lycopene isomerisation occurring during absorption in human

Evolutionary consequences of intra-patient phage predation on microbial populations

The impact of phage predation on bacterial pathogens in the context of human disease is not currently appreciated. Here, we show that predatory interactions of a phage with an important environmentally transmitted pathogen, Vibrio cholerae, can modulate the evolutionary trajectory of this pathogen during the natural course of infection within individual patients. We analyzed geographically and temporally disparate cholera patient stool samples from Haiti and Bangladesh and found that phage predation can drive the genomic diversity of intra-patient V. cholerae populations. Intra-patient phage-sensitive and phage-resistant isolates were isogenic except for mutations conferring phage resistance, and moreover, phage-resistant V. cholerae populations were composed of a heterogeneous mix of many unique mutants. We also observed that phage predation can significantly alter the virulence potential of V. cholerae shed from cholera patients. We provide the first molecular evidence for predatory phage shaping microbial community structure during the natural course of infection in humans. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03497.00

Opinion statement ECJ-TF 3/2022 on the EFTA court decision of 1 June 2022 in Case E-3/21, PRA Group Europe, on the discriminatory interaction between the "interest barrier" and group contributions

This is an Opinion Statement prepared by the CFE ECJ Task Force on the PRA Group Europe case, in which the EFTA Court delivered its decision on 1 June 2022. At issue in PRA Group Europe was the interaction of the Norwegian "interest barrier rule" ("interest limitation rule"), which generally limit the deductibility of interest payments to affiliated resident and non-resident entities to 30% of EBITDA, and the group contribution rules, which permit tax effective transfers between group members, but are limited to Norwegian entities. As group contributions also increase the EBITDA of the recipient Norwegian entity (and decrease it at the level of the paying Norwegian entity), companies in the Norwegian tax group can achieve interest deductions under the interest barrier rules where profits ("tax EBITDA") and interest expenses are distributed unevenly between the companies in the group, while a similar opportunity to escape (or lessen the impact of) the interest barrier rules is not available to cross-border groups. The EFTA Court took a combined perspective on the interaction of those rules and found them to constitute an unjustified restriction of the freedom of establishment under Articles 31 and 34 of the EEA Agreement. The EFTA Court's decision is particularly interesting from an EU law perspective, as the interest barrier rule of Article 4 of the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD) similarly foresees the option for Member States to introduce a domestically-limited "interest barrier group" to permit a calculation of exceeding borrowing costs and the EBITD at the local group level. The CFE ECJ Task Force welcomes the EFTA Court's progressive impetus on fundamental freedoms doctrine: PRA Group Europe AS makes it clear that for purposes of identifying a restriction, for establishing comparability and for justification, a combined perspective on the interaction of two sets of rules – here the interest barrier on the one hand and the group contribution regime on the other – is necessary. From that perspective, the interaction of the Norwegian rules on the "interest barrier" and on group contributions leads to unjustified discrimination in cross-border situations. However, if asked to decide on a similar case, the CJEU might take a different approach. First, the CJEU could take a different perspective on the available grounds of justifications and, e.g., accept the coherence of the tax system as such ground. Second, Article 4 ATAD gives the Member States the option to treat an "interest barrier group" as a single taxpayer and to limit the group perspective to domestic settings. Even if such an option in the ATAD is not viewed as "exhaustive harmonization", one could wonder if the mere existence of the ATAD and the value judgments made by the EU legislature therein could lead to a different outcome in the EU (CJEU) vis-à-vis the EEA (EFTA Court).info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio