Revisiting Article 9(2) of the Proposed Unshell Directive in the light of CJEU’s concept of abuse in direct tax matters

• Autor(a) principal: Boucinha, Diana Patrícia da Costa
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/41889
• topic: Unshell Directive; Safeguard clause; Burden of proof; Case law of the CJEU; Abuse; Cadbury-Schweppes; BEPS; Proposed amendment to article 9(2) of the Unshell Directive; Diretiva Unshell; Cláusula de salvaguarda; Ónus da prova; Jurisprudência do TJUE; Abuso; Proposta de alteração do artigo 9(2) da Diretiva Unshell; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Direito

The present dissertation is focused on a critical examine of article 9(2) of the Unshell Directive, which includes a safeguard clause for inversion of the burden of proof. The directive relies on a set of rebuttable presumptions. The rebuttal of these presumptions cannot go beyond the burden that the CJEU allows to be imposed on the taxable person in case of an ex-post control: the existence of abuse. Accordingly, any regulation in this matter will only be legitimate to the extent that the inversion of the burden of proof is based on a test with a substantive content in line with the Court’s jurisprudence on this matter. We will begin our dissertation with a brief introduction and reflection on the pre Cadbury-Schweppes concept of abuse. Next, we will consider the concept of abuse in terms of Cadbury-Schweppes. After that, we will analyse the development of the concept of abuse within the jurisprudence of the CJEU and BEPS. Subsequently, we will proceed to the exposition of the “new” concept of abuse that results from the analysis of the Court’s jurisprudence on abuse. And to conclude, we will move on to the presentation of the proposed amendment to article 9(2) of the Unshell Directive.