The Process of European Direct Tax Harmonization

Tax harmonization implies a process of progressive approximation and coordination of legislation in tax matters of the member states of the European Union. It is a series of steps which tries to reduce the financial and tax distortions and discriminations in the jurisdictional conditions which exist within the member states in order to achieve the full realization of freedom of movement of goods, people, services and capital in the Single Market. It is one step off the unification of tax systems through the creation of identical taxes but with different rates in a first stage, or taxes and tax rates which are the same in a second stage. The present paper contains a study of the concept of tax harmonisation, the principles, techniques, instruments and procedures in European Union Tax harmonisation, the development of European Union harmonisation of direct taxation and finally some conclusions. The researches discuss about the legal nature (direct or indirect ) of the Spanish Estate Environmental Taxes. This paper is the result of the researches that the author is carrying out about “Taxation and Climate Change”, that is a National Investigation and Development Research (DER2010-14799) and the other research about “Study on the desirability and the possibility of extending the freedom of choice in education at the Community of Madrid through the implementation of private funding sources (EDUCACEU) REF USPBS-PI02/2011-UNESCO 5309-5802-5909 and group of researches: Law: Past, present and future legal issues of Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia.