Notion of Tax

It is widely accepted that international “double taxation”, and increasingly also international “double non-taxation” situations should be eliminated. Tax treaties allocate rights to taxation between treaty partners with a view to providing legal certainty to taxpayers concerning the extent of their tax liabilities, without overlap. The elimination of double taxation, or indeed the preservation of taxation within the reasonable expectations of a treaty, however, goes only as far as the scope of the applicable tax treaty unless domestic law provisions provide for a wider scope. The substantive scope of a tax treaty determines the extent of protection it can provide against international double taxation or double non-taxation. The substantive scope of a tax treaty depends, fundamentally, on knowing what is “tax” as well as what is “the tax” the taxing rights in respect of which are apportioned between treaty partners. The project aims at analysing the "Notion of Tax" with respect to tax treaties concluded by Austria. The findings will be published as National Report for Austria in the International Fiscal Association's "cahiers de droit fiscal international" (Subject 2 of the 2016 Madrid congress).