Europe: European Commission says Fiat and Starbucks received selective tax advantages in breach of state aid rules

In June 2013 the European Commission began investigating the tax ruling practices of certain Member States; its inquiry broadened to all Member States in December 2014. The extent to which such practices breach state aid rules has been a major focus. Today the Commission announced its position regarding the selective tax advantages given to Fiat in Luxembourg and Starbucks in the Netherlands: they are illegal under the state aid rules, see here. The full decisions have not yet been published.

Other investigations taking place, in the context of state aid, include Apple in Ireland and Amazon in Luxembourg.

Gibraltar: proposed corporate tax changes constitute state aid

The Court of Justice of the European Union (Grand Chamber) gave its opinion today in Commission v Government of Gibraltar and United Kingdom: see here. A press summary is available here (pdf). The court decided that proposed changes to the taxation of companies in Gibraltar - the effect of which was that offshore companies would pay no tax - constituted state aid and were therefore incompatible with EU law. The court found that offshore companies enjoyed a selective advantage under the proposals which, in the court's view, was not the random consequence of the proposed regime: it was the inevitable consequence of the proposed bases of assessment (the number of employees and occupation of premises).