How the European Union constrains the state: Multilevel governance of taxation

Abstract

This article challenges the common assumption that the European Union (EU) has little power over taxation. Based on a comprehensive analysis of EU tax legislation and European Court of Justice (ECJ) tax jurisprudence from 1958 to 2007, the article shows that the EU exerts considerable regulatory control over the Member States' taxing power and imposes tighter constraints on Member State taxes than the American federal government imposes on American state taxation. These findings contradict the standard account of the EU as a regulatory polity that specialises in apolitical issues of market creation and leaves control of highly politicised core functions of government (defence, taxation, social security, education, etc.) to the Member States; despite strong treaty safeguards, national tax autonomy is undermined by EU regulation.

With Luxembourg in mind … the remaking of national policies in the face of ECJ jurisprudence

“…regarding corporate taxation (Genschel and Jachtenfuchs 2010) and healthcare policy (Martinsen and Vrangbaek 2008). What is more, these adjustments can only insufficiently be described in terms of compliance or non-compliance.…”

Liberalizing markets, liberalizing welfare? Economic reform and social regulation in the EU's electricity regime

“…First, research has highlighted the manner in which the EU is involved in areas considered the sole purview of member states, such as taxation, redistribution and service provision. the EU closely monitors and disciplines member states deficits through non majoritarian regulatory bodies (Schelkle 2009), and regulates member state's taxation more tightly than the United States (US) federal government regulates taxation by US states (Genschel and Jachtenfuchs 2011).…”

Tax Reforms in Latin America in an Era of Democracy

“…This feature will allow us and other researchers to examine the effect of the reforms that have taken place on the neutrality and efficiency of the system and to gauge the effort of each country in enhancing those characteristics in their respective tax systems. 7 An abbreviated list from only the past decade includes Steinmo and Swank (2002), Basinger and Hallerberg (2004), Ganghof (2006), Hays (2009), Plümper, Tröger and Winner (2009), and Genschel and Jachtenfuchs (2011. 8 For this reason, it would be inconvenient to add up both datasets to perform an econometric analysis.…”