The provisions of the Hungarian Advertisement Tax stirred up many legal debates regarding the potential breach of EU law, including State aid rules and EU fundamental freedoms, respectively, as well as the violation of the non-discrimination provision of double tax conventions. The implications of these legal questions go beyond the Hungarian tax system and have special relevance on international and EU levels.
This article analyses the
compatibility of progressive turnover-based taxes with EU law that is of
paramount importance now when Member States unilaterally introduce similarly
designed digital taxes. Furthermore, the article also sheds light on the
application of the non-discrimination clause of double tax conventions and the
EU fundamental freedoms to procedural rules designed to enforce taxes on
taxpayers who are likely not to be physically present in the taxing
jurisdiction.