Guidelines for Income Taxation of Multinational Enterprises

In this section guidelines for company taxation are presented. These guidelines are used for an assessment of the tax systems currently applied by EU member states and for the design of a harmonised system of taxation. Important criteria commonly agreed on by economists and tax experts considered here are equity and neutrality and efficiency. Moreover, administrative aspects of taxation are taken into account. Before normative criteria for the taxation of corporate income are outlined, the question of why corporate income taxes are imposed is addressed. In fact, all member states of the EU levy a corporation income tax.