Prof. Dr. René Niessen

For decades it was assumed that European law barely affects the law of direct taxes. After all the basic treaties don’t contain any rules regarding, among others, income or company tax. Meanwhile that situation has changed considerably. The case Avoir fiscal (Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) 28 January 1986, nr. 270/83) was the first in a long series of case law that often contains far reaching decisions. In these cases the so called four freedoms were above all applied to fiscal regulations.