Research project

SUMMARY ACTIVITIES AND OUTPUT ERC PROJECT GLOBTAXGOV February 2018 to July 2022

The blog

This blog is part of the research project GLOBTAXGOV – A New Model of Global Governance in International Tax Law Making , funded by the EU H2020 ERC Research  & Innovation Programme.  The principal investigator of this project is Irma Johanna Mosquera Valderrama, who has received an ERC Starting Grant by the European Research Council for the period February 2018 -July 2023 ( 6 Months extension due to COVID19).

This blog aims to set up an alternative platform for discussion among scholars, governments, international organizations, and research institutions regarding the setting of international tax standards by the OECD, G20 and the EU. This blog will be fed by experts in governance, tax law, and international relations. It also aims to  communicate and disseminate the findings of the GLOBTAXGOV research project.

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The project

The overall aim of GLOBTAXGOV is to assess the feasibility and legitimacy of the current model of global tax governance and the role of the OECD and the EU in international tax law making. Unlike the former OECD projects that only provide for exchange of information between countries, in the BEPS Project, the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive, the EU state aid investigations and the EU External Strategy, the OECD and the EU focus on substantive issues that, when implemented, will change the international tax architecture of developed and developing countries.

These initiatives aim to ensure that governments engage in fair competition and that multinationals pay their fair share. Even though these objectives are legitimate, these developments raise several questions: What is the role of the OECD and the EU in global tax governance? Under what conditions can the model of global tax governance be feasible and legitimate for both developed and developing countries? These initiatives have generated tensions between developing and developed countries and between EU and third (non-EU) countries. The tensions call for the articulation of a new framework of global tax governance that is legitimate and based on considerations of fairness for all countries participating.

Against this background, the GLOBTAXGOV project will first assess the feasibility of the legal transplant of the BEPS minimum standards into the tax systems of 8 countries of research (Australia, Colombia, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Senegal, and Spain ) by asking three sub-questions:

  • Why are these countries participating in the BEPS Project?
  • How will the BEPS minimum standards be transplanted into the tax system of these countries?
  • How can the differences in tax systems and tax cultures of these countries influence the content of these minimum standards?

In the following step the conditions for legitimacy of the role of the OECD and the EU will be provided in light of the theories of legitimacy and governance.

More information on the project here