CJEU – Recent Developments in Direct Taxation 2015

I. S. 152Introduction

As a result of the financial and economic crisis, the phenomenon of black savings has received increased attention over the past years. At the international level, the network of tax information exchange agreements has been expanded considerably, while at the same time grounds for refusing to comply with international information exchange requests have been diminished. Notably, under the internationally agreed standard for exchange of information, states can no longer refuse to comply with a request for information under reference to national banking secrecy rules.

In the course of this evolving tendency towards greater transparency in tax matters, however, the position of taxpayer’s rights has received less attention. In the pending case of X., however, the position of the taxpayer is actually at stake. This case concerns the application of the so-called Passenheim-doctrine and the Dutch extended reassessment period of 12 years that applies in relations with other EU and non-EU Member States (in the case at hand: Switzerland) whereas in purely domestic situations a reassessment period of 5 years applies. The Passenheim-doctrine says that once the Dutch tax authoritie...