Abuse of Law Doctrine in Tax Law

This paper was written in order of the reforming of the tax system’s framework. Analysing phenomena such as tax evasion, tax avoidance, the use of legal loopholes to reduce tax liability in Italy was very challenged. The purpose of this paper is to verify, in the light of most interventions the latest case law of the European Court of Justice, if it exists in the field of direct and indirect taxes, a general principle of abuse of law. The existence of this provision will be analyzed in the context of the principle of legal certainty. We should analyse the concept of abuse of law as a normative problem and historical-evolutionary phenomenon. In this paper a special place is taken by the genesis of the concept of abuse of Community law and the general principle of prohibition of abuse of the right in function of a general anti-avoidance norm, its meaning, effects and role as a corrector of the system. We have addressed the role of jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, dividing it into two parts: Abuse in field of harmonized taxation- Halifax Doctrine and Abuse in the field of disharmonized taxation -The leading case-Cadbury Schweppes.