The Fundamental Freedoms and their Influence on Profit Taxation in EU and EAEU
Abstract
The article considers the role of fundamental freedoms in the mechanism of tax integration. The tax law of an integration association serves as a means of creating and proper functioning of the internal market, which is a space without internal borders, in the territory of which, in accordance with the constituent agreements, the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor is ensured. It is proved that the rules governing the action of fundamental freedoms are the rules of direct action with no harmonizing effect, but prohibit discrimination and restrictions within the association. Modern cross-border tax relations require the creation of an effective multi-level system of legal regulation based on the norms of international, supranational and national law. The study allowed to highlight the direction of the impact of fundamental freedoms on the legal regime of profit and income taxation in the European Union (hereinafter — the EU) and the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter — the EAEU), as well as to identify similarities and differences in the mechanisms of harmonization of profit and income taxation in the EU and the EAEU. The methodological basis of the research consists of both general scientific methods (dialectical-materialistic, systemic, induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis) and interdisciplinary research methods. The study is based on a comparative legal method that allows to compare similar legal problems existing in the legislation and international treaties of the EAEU and the EU, as well as to identify the best ways to solve them. The formal legal method and the historical legal method are also used in the article. The conceptual difference between ways of harmonization in the areas of direct and indirect taxation is substantiated: direct taxation has less impact on the functioning of the Union economy in comparison with indirect taxation. Legal regulation of direct taxation remains within the competence of Member States and is carried out at the level of integration associations only in certain areas related to the implementation of fundamental freedoms. In addition, the study revealed the specifics of the principle of tax sovereignty in the field of integration tax law: tax sovereignty causes both the problem of tax competition and its solution in the form of cooperation of Member States.
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