| Abstract [eng] |
Given that multinational groups often engage in aggressive tax planning to avoid paying corporate income tax by creating various artificial structures, schemes or arrangements, the aim is to shed light on the concept of such artificial structures and their impact on corporate income tax. The first part of the Master’s thesis therefore analyses the concept of artificial derivatives, their significance and how artificial derivatives manifest themselves in corporate groups. The problem of identification of artificial derivative is revealed, focusing on international and national regulations. The European Union has recently adopted, and is currently still considering, measures against the use of artificial derivative in corporate groups, where schemes are set up which are used for aggressive tax planning to avoid paying corporate tax, thus abusing tax incentives or agreements. The second part of the paper therefore looks at what has led to the introduction of measures against artificial derivatives, the main rules established at both international and national level. It also seeks to show how the rules against artificial derivatives are becoming stricter and what measures the tax authorities are taking to achieve them. The third part of the paper analyses the recent case law of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania identifying an artificial derivative. The question whether the requirements for multinational enterprise groups are not restrictive of the principle of freedom of establishment is addressed, as well as the significance of the beneficial owner. |
