Justice, Equality and Tax Law

S. 4021. Introduction

Cooperative compliance programs (CCP) are a well-received addition to supervision of tax authorities and became increasingly popular in recent years. Such programs are typically built on mutual trust, transparency, openness, cooperation, and collaboration and aim to improve the relationship between taxpayers and tax authorities.

The eligibility requirements to participate in CCPs are generally high and are thus mostly designed for large businesses. Even though such programs typically do not provide economic advantages, they do provide procedural benefits like early tax certainty or accelerated exchange of information. However, excluding small and medium businesses from the CCPs is suitable for creating injustice.

This paper examines if the eligibility requirements of the CCPs of various jurisdictions (Austria, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, and ICAP) as well as the respective regulations regarding tax certainty can be considered just in light of the legal principles of equality before the law and legal certainty.

Therefore, it first provides a general overview of the history, the purpose, and the underlying principles of CCPs. Then, the paper defines the legal princ...