At the Research Center for European Public Finance and Tax Law, a comprehensive archive for European secondary legislation containing public finance and tax law is currently being created.
Considering the constant revision and updating of the already existing body of legislation as well as the progressive development of tax legislation at the European level, the Research Center believes that there is a need for providing a systematic overview of European tax law. Therefore, the project aims at collecting and structuring the essential secondary legislation containing tax law and finally making it accessible in a compact, concise and comprehensive form. Hopefully, the archive will prove to be useful both for the application of law and as a basis for research projects in this field.
Access to the archive is intended to be provided via the "Materials" page. The secondary law will initially be divided into the sections "direct taxes", "indirect taxes" and "procedural law". The sections will be further subdivided according to the subject matter (e.g. the Merger Directive in the section of direct taxation) or according to the type of tax (e.g. VAT in the section of indirect taxation). For each of these subject areas, a summary of the relevant documents in tabular form will be created. The documents will be available – if existing – in German, English and French and can be accessed directly in full text via a download link. After the materials page is activated, the archive will be continuously updated, edited and supplemented.
Within the respective summary in tabular form, the currently valid version of the respective legal act including the associated legislative material shall be listed first. Amendments to this central legal act will be highlighted not only by listing all new versions, but also by including the respective amending legal acts. Furthermore, the historical development shall be illustrated, which will not only include repealed predecessor provisions but also the respective legislative material. Finally, the implementation in or the effects on German tax law will be addressed.