From Hegemony to Transatlantic Tax Battle?

Abstract

This chapter discusses the most recent developments in transatlantic bargaining over countermeasures to financial secrecy and corporate profit-shifting, and sketches several future scenarios based on the theory developed in Chapter 2. It shows that dissatisfaction with nonreciprocal automatic exchange of information (AEI) and the BEPS project's failure to limit tax avoidance in the common market has motivated the European Commission and several member states to push for a common reaction. The European Union has since produced an integrated blacklist of third countries not complying with its tax good governance standards and ordered several member states to claw back taxes lost to sweetheart deals granting selective advantages to individual firms. Moreover, finance ministers debate the introduction of a digital services tax and a common consolidated corporate tax base to curb profit-shifting in the common market. Finally, the chapter presents some overall conclusions drawn from the research presented in this volume.