The Tax Policy Within The European Union: Concepts, Institutions, Trends And Challenges

At the basis of conceiving the tax policy of an European Union member state, one must consider, on the one hand, fulfilling the government's own requirements, and on the other hand, achieving the objectives set by the EC Treaty. At present, the European Union has a quite harmonized and coordinated tax policy in the indirect taxes field, and partially in the direct taxes field, based on the free movement principle of goods, services, capital and labour; thus, although the member states have the freedom to set operation rules of their own national tax systems, this freedom is conditioned by the compliance with the priority objectives of the founding treaties of the European Union. The member states should avoid adopting discriminating tax measures (which could lead to a disadvantageous treatment for the persons, goods and services or capitals coming from other member states). Sometimes, the restrictions regarding free movement on the internal market are generated by the differences between the national tax systems, so that a certain degree of tax harmonization at the European Union level is necessary. The tax harmonization can be achieved either spontaneously (by means of the forces of the market), by means of active actions at the level of the European Union (the implementation of common policies, the coordination of the policies, the harmonization of the legislation, etc.) or by means of the passive actions of the European Court of Justice (the interdiction of certain types of conduct of the member states that do not comply with the norms of the European Union). In the absence of the tax harmonization, negative effects can occur, such as: the erosion of the national tax bases, provision of public services and goods at a sub-optimal level, unwanted changes in the structure of the taxes which are levied in the member states, and distortions in assigning resources at the level of the single market.