Double Taxation Treaties (DTTs) represent one of the most direct tools through which tax policies of the EU-28 could directly influence the ability of developing countries to collect taxes. Unlike in case of other key policy issues such as creation of intergovernmental tax body or EU wide public country-by-country reporting, which require coordinated actions of numerous countries, the content of DTTs is in competence of national decision-makers and government officials. This is because the content of the tax treaties can be determined by each contracting state and the provisions of the respective treaty can be tailored in favor of the developing country or in favor of developed country.
Awareness about development dimension of tax policies is quite low among decision makers and government officials in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEs). Assumption that DTTs are beneficial to developing countries prevails in CEEs. This Report helps to test how much is this assumption correct and could provide ground for calculation of direct losses of developing countries because of the DTTs.
The Report includes general introduction to Double Taxation Treaties and identifies the key Articles in the UN and OECD Model Tax Conventions which influence tax collection in developing countries. In four country chapters the Report maps and evaluates the DTTs of the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia with selected developing countries (usually receivers of official development assistance). The Report also includes recommendations for individual countries as well as for the CEE region.
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