Tax Treaty Override

What exactly is tax treaty override ? When is it realized ? This thesis, which is the result of a co-directed PhD between the University of Bologna and Tilburg University, gives a deep insight into a topic that has not yet been analyzed in a systematic way. On the contrary, the analysis about tax treaty override is still at a preliminary stage. For this reason the origin and nature of tax treaty override are first of all analyzed in their ‘natural’ context, i.e. within general international law. In order to characterize tax treaty override and deeply understand its peculiarities the evaluation of the effects of general international law on tax treaties based on the OECD Model Convention is a necessary pre-condition. Therefore, the binding effects of an international agreement on state sovereignty are specifically investigated. Afterwards, the interpretation of the OECD Model Convention occupies the main part of the thesis in order to develop an ‘interpretative model’ which can be applied every time a case of tax treaty override needs to be detected. Fictitious income, exit taxes and CFC regimes are analyzed in order to verify their compliance with tax treaties based on the OECD Model Convention and establish when the relevant legislation realizes cases of tax treaty override.