This study discusses the impact of the EC Treaty on the recognition of entities in the internal market.

The EC Treaty envisages the internal market as an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of the EC Treaty.

One of the key questions discussed in this study is how this rationale reflects the relation between tax laws of Member States and, specifically, the relation between the application of autonomous classification methods by Member States and the free allocation of economic resources in the internal market.

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This study also contains an examination of how the different approaches to hybrid entities in tax treaties interfere with EC law. This part of the study contains an analysis of how the interrelation between domestic (tax) laws and the approach to classification conflicts under existing bilateral tax treaties relates to EC law.

• Part One: Introduction.
• Part Two: Classification methods under Member States’ international private law.
• Part Three: Autonomous tax classification methods in the internal market.
• Part Four: Do tax treaties provide for solutions in the internal market?
• Part Five: Blueprint for a new Community Directive.
• Part Six: Summary and conclusions.

Gijs Fibbe works at PricewaterhouseCoopers Rotterdam and teaches international tax law at the Law Faculty of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.

The mission of the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation is: “[T]o maintain a knowledge centre providing information about and explanations of international taxation and promoting the study of taxation in general” (Art. 2 of the articles of association). True to this mission, and aware that access to doctoral theses is often limited, IBFD has taken the initiative to make available to a wider public a series of books based on doctoral research, meeting the highest academic standards.

Only contributions that enhance the international academic tax debate are accepted. In order to ensure high quality, every thesis published in this series has been reviewed by academic members of the Board of Trustees, senior IBFD research staff or prominent tax academics worldwide. The series aims to cover all aspects of comparative and international taxation, not only in respect of income tax, but also in respect of VAT and of inheritance, estate and gift taxes.