Restoring the EU citizenship for tax purposes

Abstract

Citizenship-based taxation has become insignificant due to high mobility of individuals, which are completely detached from their polities. The lack of political, social and cultural bonds of the individual with the states has shifted the focus to the concept of tax residence. This contribution sheds light on the concept of supranational citizenship in clear opposition to the nation-state citizenship, for the purposes of legitimizing levying a tax on EU citizens. The ongoing concept of EU citizenship anchored firstly in the principle of mutual recognition and secondly in the emergence of democratic and pluralist values under the so-called European way of life, yields certain imbalances and asymmetries derived from a steep distinction between economically active and economically inactive EU citizens. In the authors view, levying a tax upon EU citizens would enhance the demos and solidarity within the current withered EU integration project.