European Union law is not a layer above national tax law — it is part of it. Directives, regulations and the case law of the Court of Justice determine how a Member State may tax a cross-border transaction, and a French rule that conflicts with them can be set aside by the French courts at the taxpayer’s request. That makes EU law something rare in tax practice: a ground on which the taxpayer can attack the rule itself, not merely its application.
This is the field of my doctoral research — a doctorate in law on the conflict between bilateral tax treaties and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union — and it has remained at the centre of my practice since.
What EU tax law can do for a taxpayer
- Conformity challenges — arguing that a French tax provision, or the administration’s reading of it, is incompatible with a directive or with the Treaty, before the administration and the tax courts.
- Fundamental freedoms — freedom of establishment, free movement of capital and freedom to provide services as grounds against discriminatory or restrictive tax treatment of cross-border situations.
- Preliminary reference strategy — framing a dispute so that the decisive question of EU law can be put to the Court of Justice, and using existing CJEU case law to resolve it without a reference where possible.
- State aid — assessing whether a tax measure or ruling raises State aid questions, and the recovery risk that follows.
Where it bites hardest: indirect taxation
The most harmonised — and most litigated — area of EU tax law is VAT. The common system rests on a single directive interpreted by a single court, which means a French VAT dispute is very often an EU law dispute in disguise: the deduction right, exemptions, place-of-supply rules and procedural safeguards all carry a European dimension that changes what can be argued. For foreign companies, the practical starting point is my detailed guide to EU VAT compliance obligations; the EU law arguments then come into play when a position is examined or contested.
I act for companies and individuals in French, English and Dutch, from Paris and Rotterdam. If a French tax rule is costing you money in a cross-border situation, it is worth asking whether EU law allows that result at all. Contact the firm — everything you share is covered by professional secrecy.