Anti-abuse clauses are the mechanism typically used by different jurisdictions to avoid “abuse of tax rules” in a business environment characterised by the growing numbers of cross-border transactions taking place. Clauses of this kind are gaining increasing importance internationally, triggering their implementation by countries which have traditionally been reluctant to impose them, their recasting by other countries, the issue by supra-national organisations such as the European Commission of recommendations for their adaption, and their interpretation by tax authorities in highly expansive...

The general aim of the Tax and Competitiveness Foundation is already known: to contribute to the improvement of the tax system and its practical application. In this last area one of the issues most clearly identified as negative is doubtlessly the existence of a wide-range of tax-related disputes, which, furthermore leads to lengthy lawsuits very often lasting more than 10 years, and which are excessive and contrary to the requirements of an advanced tax system that is compatible with legal certainty and economic competiveness. Aside from the above, in its document published in March 2014 ...

Madrid, October 3, 2014 On October 2, the Tax and Competitiveness Foundation held the third of conferences on “Analyzing the tax reform from the company perspective and the aim of competitiveness” at the Madrid headquarters of the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organizations (“CEOE”). The conference, titled “Tax Reform Assessment,” enabled the foundation to give its assessment of the different tax reform projects under way, acting with its usual moderation while being firm in its social commitment to contributing to the tax debate. The foundation was moderately positive about the ta...

Within the general focus of the Tax and Competitiveness Foundation, centred on finding solutions for the Spanish tax system that enable the Spanish and European economies to achieve maximum competitiveness, it is not surprising that the Foundation has launched a study on International Taxation and Competitiveness. The study addresses the main controversial issues raised by the tax treatment of cross-border relationships. This is a highly topical issue given the unusual attention that numerous international courts have been giving to tax issues in recent years, and the issues are certainly high...

Madrid, 12 March 2014.- The quality of tax systems is increasingly measured by the degree of legal certainty they offer. It serves little purpose to enact tax measures addressed to favouring productive activity and the creation of employment if their capacity to generate real results is reduced due to the lack of confidence of the economic operators regarding the subsequent interpretation and effective application of those measures by the authorities and regarding their stable maintenance over time. Legal certainty has a value in itself, in being a central element of a State of Law: but in ...

Economic progress and legal certainty are two concepts that are indissolubly linked. The legal rules have to be clear and precise, particularly when it is a question of defining scopes of coactive action by the public authorities. Only in this way does the legal system become the fertile field where the generation of collective wealth can germinate. In recent months we have witnessed a cascade of legislative innovations which have a direct impact on the economic world. Many of them are associated with tax law and are addressed to the achievement of a twofold goal: Increasing tax pressure w...

Today the Fundación Impuestos y Competitividad held the second conference of its cycle on “The reform of the tax system: its analysis from the perspective of the company and the goal of competitiveness.” In organising it, it had the support the Wolters Kluwer publishing group and the Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks (CECA), at whose head offices the event was held. Madrid, 27 November 2013.- Today the Fundación Impuestos y Competitividad brought together some of the most highly-reputed experts in Tax Law at the head offices of the CECA to discuss the guidelines of the tax reform in r...

Madrid, October 2013.- In October 2013 the Fundación Impuestos y Competitividad brought together several experts in Tax Law at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas ICAI-ICADE to discuss the different aspects considered by the current reform of Spanish Tax System. This conference formed part of the cycle on “The reform of the tax system: its analysis from the perspective of the company and the goal of competitiveness,” organised by the Foundation. The event was opened by Mr. Iñigo Navarro Mendizábal, in representation of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas ICAI-ICADE, and Mr. Mario Lara Sanz,...

The real estate sector has played a key role in sustaining economic growth in Spain over the last years. However, the current economic situation has created the need to consider new measures that will help revitalise Spain’s real estate activity and ensure that the sector keeps its leading role in the new economic model that will eventually emerge. With this aim in mind, the publishing house e-Praxis has published the Fundación Impuestos y Competitividad’s (Tax and Competiveness Foundation) first book entitled Proposals on the Reform of the Real Estate Activity Legal Framework. This book ai...

Gravámenes sobre el sector financiero In recognition of a matter of undoubted current interest, the Foundation has promoted a study on New taxes on the financial sector, which has been prepared by KPMG – one of the entities that have the status of Board Member of the Foundation- , under the direction of D: Victor Mendoza Díaz Aguado tax partner of that firm. That study examines in depth the proposals from European Commission for the introduction of a tax on financial transactions as much as the proposals that, from various international forums, have been carried out ahead in that direc...