Where Tax Meets Competition Law: State Aid in the EU - Is State Aid Control the Cure or the Curse of Tax Rulings?
(2025) HARN63 20251Department of Business Law
- Abstract
- Member States of the EU have authority to set up national tax systems in line with their national policies. While Member States maintain sovereignty over direct taxation, this power is constrained by EU law, including the State aid rules. National tax rulings can sometimes result in certain undertakings gaining advantages. The EU has rules regulating aid measures, to combat distortion of competition within the internal market. The national competence of tax rulings and the Commissions power to investigate in these matters creates an interesting intersection between national tax rulings and EU State aid law.
Through analysing the Commission’s legal reasoning in four cases concerning direct taxation and State aid, this research seeks to... (More) - Member States of the EU have authority to set up national tax systems in line with their national policies. While Member States maintain sovereignty over direct taxation, this power is constrained by EU law, including the State aid rules. National tax rulings can sometimes result in certain undertakings gaining advantages. The EU has rules regulating aid measures, to combat distortion of competition within the internal market. The national competence of tax rulings and the Commissions power to investigate in these matters creates an interesting intersection between national tax rulings and EU State aid law.
Through analysing the Commission’s legal reasoning in four cases concerning direct taxation and State aid, this research seeks to assess the Commissions approach in this specific area of law. The thesis includes two research questions. The first one assesses legal conditions for State aid in direct taxation. The second research question assesses in the light of this the ongoing investigation into Netherlands tax rulings granting possible selective advantages to Inter IKEA.
Findings of this research indicate that effectiveness of the State aid rules depends on the Commission’s legal approach and underlines that sufficient evidence-based derogation from the general tax systems is essential in State aid investigations. This thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of practical implications of State aid and offers an independent assessment of possible outcomes in the ongoing Inter IKEA investigation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9193786
- author
- Änggårdh, Else LU and Pispas, Eleni LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- HARN63 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- EU State aid, Art 107 (1) TFEU, Selective advantage, The Commission, Unlawful State aid, Legal conditions, Direct taxation, Tax rulings.
- language
- English
- id
- 9193786
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-09 11:24:42
- date last changed
- 2025-06-09 11:24:42
@misc{9193786,
abstract = {{Member States of the EU have authority to set up national tax systems in line with their national policies. While Member States maintain sovereignty over direct taxation, this power is constrained by EU law, including the State aid rules. National tax rulings can sometimes result in certain undertakings gaining advantages. The EU has rules regulating aid measures, to combat distortion of competition within the internal market. The national competence of tax rulings and the Commissions power to investigate in these matters creates an interesting intersection between national tax rulings and EU State aid law.
Through analysing the Commission’s legal reasoning in four cases concerning direct taxation and State aid, this research seeks to assess the Commissions approach in this specific area of law. The thesis includes two research questions. The first one assesses legal conditions for State aid in direct taxation. The second research question assesses in the light of this the ongoing investigation into Netherlands tax rulings granting possible selective advantages to Inter IKEA.
Findings of this research indicate that effectiveness of the State aid rules depends on the Commission’s legal approach and underlines that sufficient evidence-based derogation from the general tax systems is essential in State aid investigations. This thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of practical implications of State aid and offers an independent assessment of possible outcomes in the ongoing Inter IKEA investigation.}},
author = {{Änggårdh, Else and Pispas, Eleni}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Where Tax Meets Competition Law: State Aid in the EU - Is State Aid Control the Cure or the Curse of Tax Rulings?}},
year = {{2025}},
}