Opis: | The thesis analyses the tax and social benefits of frontier workers in the European Union. Frontier workers are in exercising their tax and social advantages faces with the different rules of national system which are exercising from parallel taxation powers of two neighboring Member States, and the rules of international and supranational tax law. The EU has limited powers in direct taxation of income of frontier workers, because the taxation is part of sovereign powers of each Member State. Taxation at EU level is neither harmonized nor coordinated within the scope of social security through coordination. Member States are obliged to respect the supranational principles and provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Treaty on European Union and has the goal of avoidance of international double taxation with adopted the Convention on the prevention of double taxation, as recommended by the OECD Model Tax Convention, which does not always brings a fair burden on taxpayers and raises many issues of double taxation fairness of taxation, (not) the eligibility of benefits, less favourable treatment or even discriminatory treatment as well as to the treatment, which per se is not contrary to supranational law. Although Member States exercise their tax sovereignty with regards to the lack of coordination insisting on an unclear fiscal national policy, it does not clarify the situation of frontier workers in a supranational and international context. Such a position can lead to a demographic decline in one Member State or fiscal distortions of tax competition. On the other hand, workers are exercising fundamental freedoms which are one of the goals in the internal market. Moreover, various kinds of restrictions (not only discriminations) that dissuade the taxpayer from exercising fundamental freedoms or place him on a less favorable position should have been removed. Integration of the national tax system is necessary or at least uniformation of the fiscal regime of neighboring Member States, which can, in the future, lead to coordinated fiscal policies in the EU. Meanwhile, regarding social benefits, frontier workers can risk falling between two stools, or controversy, end up having the best of both worlds. This thesis also discusses legal barriers of Slovenia frontier workers employed in Austria. In 2013 the Constitutional Court declared that the special tax relief for frontier workers is inconsistent with the principle of tax equity. After the abolition of the special tax relief, frontier workers have to pay a tax on income received in Austria, where the tax policy is favorable. Slovenian workers are not subject to a higher tax scale than other Slovenian residents since Member States assert taxing power over the cross-border situation in the same manner as over the comparable domestic situation and are not discriminated when exercising their fundamental freedoms. Nevertheless, the questions remains: are frontier workers in exercising their fundamental freedoms which leads them to the disadvantageous treatment discriminated in the internal market. |
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