Fiscal competition and tax avoidance in Europe: an assessment.

Abstract

-This work attempts to provide a comprehensive picture of fiscal competition in Europe. The main focus is that of presenting and interpreting theoretical models of tax competition such as those elaborated by Persson and Tabellini (1992) and Kanbur and Keen (1993). Some reference to the main developments now under discussion in the European Council and in the EU Parliament about tax-reforms are also provided. The first and foremost important development being the recent proposal of the European Commission for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) (published on 25 October 2016). Finally, it is given an overview of the topic of tax evasion and tax avoidance, both from an informative and from an economic perspective. The issue of redistribution when governments compete for tax bases is also tackled.-