Why this book?
One of the most difficult questions faced in tax law is how to determine the taxable base. Starting from the ability-to-pay principle, income is generally considered to be the best indicator to measure the ability to pay taxes. The main question, however, is how income should be defined. Particularly the notion of income from capital causes many problems. Ordinary workers are bearing the burden of the fact that capital owners can no longer be taxed because of globalization and information technology. These problems were discussed in depth during the 2003 conference of the European Association of Tax Law Professors (EATLP) in Cologne. This book contains the proceedings of this conference. In the first part of the book the influence of general and specific principles on the taxation of income from capital is discussed, e.g. the influence of the S-H-S model, the source theory and the cash flow method. Further, the relationship between personal income taxes and other taxes related to income from capital is analysed. The second part deals with how European countries determine the taxable base of income from capital. This part shows how the conflict between the accrual concept of income and the realization principle is tackled in various European countries; the different possibilities of tax deferral in Europe, the possible treatment of capital gains and losses, the influence of inflation, the taxation of imputed income and, finally, the various emigration taxes in Europe are analysed. The third part of the book contains a general report based on the conclusions from the various contributions and discussions at the conference in Cologne.
This book is part of the EATLP International Tax Series
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Contributor(s)
Henk van Arendonk, Laura Castaldi, Peter Essers, Judith Freedman, Wolfgang Gassner, Daniel Gutmann, Kevin Holmes, Peter Kavelaars, Joachim Lang, Leif Mutén, Manfred Rose, Ian Roxan, Arie Rijkers, Claudio Sacchetto, Alain Steichen, Bertil Wiman