• Course title: Introduction to Luxembourg Tax Law
• Number of ECTS: 0
• Course code: MADE4-1
• Module(s): Module 1 Luxembourg taxation
• Language: EN
• Mandatory: No

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):- Explain the systematics and general principles of Luxembourg tax law;- Complete a Luxembourg income tax declaration (natural and legal persons);- Apply the Luxembourg Income Tax Law to small case studies

The course gives an overview of Luxembourg tax law, focusing on personal income tax (PIT) and corporate income tax (CIT) law. It also includes sections on municipal business tax (MBT) and net wealth tax (NWT). The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the legal framework of Luxembourg income and wealth tax law and its systematics.

• Course title: Introduction to Financial Accounting and Bookkeeping
• Number of ECTS: 0
• Course code: MADE4-3
• Module(s): Module 1 Luxembourg taxation
• Language: EN
• Mandatory: No

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):

–       

Interpret and analyse a balance sheet and a profit and loss account;

–       

Register economic transactions from an accounting perspective;

–       

Apply accounting principles contained in LUX GAAP.

The course is aimed for students that have a legal background. In this course, students learn about accounting concepts and get ready for the tax accounting mandatory course of the LLM. In this course, there is a special focus on:-        The concept of balance sheet and the profit and loss account.-        Accounting registration of different economic transactions and their impact on the balance sheet and the profit and loss account.Accounting principles contained in LUX GAAP

• Course title: Luxembourg Tax Law: Individual and Corporate Taxation
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-EITL-1
• Module(s): Module 1 Luxembourg taxation
• Language: FR, EN
• Mandatory: Yes

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):-     Identifier et décrire les concepts fondamentaux et mécanismes du droit fiscal des personnes physiques ;-     Développer et présenter une argumentation juridique sur base des connaissances approfondies concernant l’impôt sur le revenu des personnes physiques, et à la lumière de la jurisprudence en matière fiscale ;-     Analyser et résoudre des questions juridiques touchant à des aspects divers de l’obligation fiscale personnelle et de l’assiette de l’impôt sur le revenu ;-     Appliquer les dispositions essentielles et concepts fondamentaux en matière de fiscalité. 2. Corporate Taxation- Décrire les grands principes de la fiscalité des entreprises concernant les impôts directs (principalement l’impôt sur le revenu), les textes afférents, ainsi que les principales difficultés d’application pratique susceptibles d’être rencontrés.

1. Individual TaxationL’impôt sur le revenu des personnes physiques :- Les caractéristiques ;- L’obligation fiscale personnelle ;- La base de l’impôt sur le revenu ;- La détermination des revenus ;- Les déductions privées ;- Le calcul de l’impôt. 2.CorporateTaxationFiscalité des entreprises, centrée sur l’imposition directe des sociétés transparentes et opaques. Les fusions & acquisitions sont également abordées.

• Course title: Typologie des fonds d'investissement
• Number of ECTS: 4
• Course code: MADE4-68
• Module(s): Module 1 Luxembourg taxation
• Language: FR
• Mandatory: Yes

• Course title: Financial Accounting
• Number of ECTS: 1
• Course code: MADE4-EITL-4
• Module(s): Module 1 Luxembourg taxation
• Language: FR, EN
• Mandatory: Yes

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):

– Recognize how economic transactions are registered from an accounting perspective;

– Analyze and interpret annual accounts; and

– Link accounting with income tax consequences

This course explains the law. and practice of Luxembourg accounting, focusing on a general understanding of the purposes and principles of accounting, the study of balance sheets and how to read them, and, finally, the specific rules of “tax accounting” in Luxembourg.

• Course title: International Tax Law I: General Principles and Systems
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-EITL-2
• Module(s): Module 2 International Taxation
• Language: EN
• Mandatory: Yes

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):

–     

Identify the causes of double taxation and remedies provided for by international instruments and mechanisms;

–     

Apply the principles and rules of the international tax system to solve complex cross-border tax cases;

–     

Explain the specifics of the US approach to international taxation.

This course builds on students’ basic knowledge of national and international tax law. It covers the fundamental structure of the international tax regime as well as its most important notions that underpin that system. It complements the course “International Taxation II – Allocation of Taxing Rights and Avoidance of Double Taxation”, which focusses on technical aspects of traditional international tax law. The course is divided among three teachers, Professor Werner Haslehner (WH) and two world-leading academic experts, Professor Alexander Rust (AR) and Professor Yariv Brauner (YB).

• Course title: International Tax Law II: Allocation of Taxing Rights
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-EITL-3
• Module(s): Module 2 International Taxation
• Language:
• Mandatory: Yes

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):

–     

Apply the rules of double taxation conventions to solve complex cross-border tax cases:

–       

Choose the appropriate allocation rule for a given fact pattern;

–       

Apply the correct method for the calculation of double taxation relief;

–       

Identify the available measures for taxpayers and tax authorities to collect information and resolve disputes arising in cross-border tax cases;

–       

Be aware of the scope different non-discrimination rules and the general anti-abuse rule (GAAR).

 

–   Identify the gaps left by double taxation conventions and the consequences arising from these gaps for taxpayers and governments.

This course builds on students’ basic knowledge of national and international tax law. It covers the core of the substantive rules governing the allocation of taxing rights and double taxation avoidance. It complements the course “International Tax Law I: General Principles and Procedures”, which focusses on the fundamental structure and notions of the international tax system. The course is divided between two teachers, Professor Werner Haslehner (WH) and a judge from Luxembourg’s highest judicial authority in direct tax law, Serge Schroeder (SS). Classes taught by WH are given in English, while class by SS are given in French. The exam may be completed

• Course title: Moot Court
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4TC
• Module(s): Module 2 International Taxation
• Language: FR
• Mandatory: No

• Course title: EU Tax Law I – Fundamental Freedoms and State Aid
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-EITL-5
• Module(s): Module 3 EU Taxation
• Language: EN
• Mandatory: Yes

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):Identify the interaction of the four freedoms with direct taxation and the main problems and frictions that arise there from;-    Master the CJEU’s case law in the aforementioned thematic areas discussed in class;-    Understand the relationship between state aid law and tax law and estimate the impact of state aid law on national tax legislation;-     Comfortably navigate the steps necessary to decide whether a national measure needs to be notified to the Commission.

The course is addressed to students with a basic knowledge of tax law. Some basic notions of EU law and tax law will be briefly revised in the first classes in order to ensure a level playing field. The focus of the course is the interaction of the fundamental freedoms with direct taxation. Hence, the course will be predominantly based on the CJEU’s case law. Because of the impossibility to go through all cases pertaining to the aforementioned issues, we will present, examine and critically discuss ‘the landmark decisions’ of the CJEU as well as other ‘important’ cases from both a horizontal and a thematic perspective.  By way of introduction, the following EU and tax law topics will be briefly recapitulated (Prof. Katerina Pantazatou): –      The basic principles of EU law (e.g. the principle of conferral, the principle of subsidiarity and proportionality);-      The role of the EU institutions in direct taxation with special emphasis on the CJEU; –      Legislation in tax matters;-      Major provisions applicable to direct taxation;-      The four freedoms (scope, four step analysis; order of priority). Upon their introduction, these basic concepts will be discussed vis-a-vis the CJEU’s direct tax case law. While the analysis will be mostly ‘thematic’ (i.e. it will be built around the main problematic issues presented before the CJEU like taxation of cross-border workers), the aim of the course is to discuss the case law also from an evolutionary and analytical perspective in order to show the development of the relevant EU and tax law concepts in time and the particularities of tax law, in specific the notions of disparities and dislocations and the importance of the distinction between inbound and outbound situations for comparability purposes. Hence, the course will begin by providing a systematic and horizontal analysis of the aforementioned problems, while introducing the students to the case law. In specific, the following questions will be discussed (Prof. Pantazatou): –      What are non-discriminatory restrictions? What are disparities and what are dislocations? Which ones are covered by the fundamental freedoms?-      When are two situations (domestic vs. cross-border/ cross border v. cross-border/ different legal forms) comparable?-      What justifications and under what circumstances have been accepted by the Court?-      How does the proportionality test work in the given case law? The thematic analysis will focus on the following questions and the way they were treated by the CJEU: –      Personal income tax (Prof. Katerina Pantazatou)-      Tax planning, tax avoidance and tax abuse in the EU and the relevant case law (Prof. Ana Paula Dourado);-      Treatment of losses and group relief in the EU and the relevant case law (Prof. Katerina Pantazatou);-      Withholding taxes (Prof. Edoardo Traversa)-      Double taxation in the EU and the relevant case law (Prof. Leopoldo Parada). The course will also address the relationship between state aid and tax law. In this context, it will review the main General Court and CJEU case law, including the recent transfer pricing major profile cases (Prof. Katerina Pantazatou)Specifically, the course will:-        recapitulate the fundamental principles of state aid law before applying them to national taxation;-        analyse the four criteria to find illegal state aid as laid down in Article 107 TFEU;-        critically discuss the three-step test applied by the CJEU to fiscal state aid cases;reviews existing cases on aspects of corporate taxation, environmental taxation, transfer pricing, and hybrid mismatches

• Course title: EU Tax Law II – Secondary Law
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-EITL-6
• Module(s): Module 3 EU Taxation
• Language: EN
• Mandatory: Yes

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):-     Master the rules of secondary EU law governing direct tax law, enabling them to say with confidence how the regulated transactions must be treated across the EU;-     Adapt to any changes in existing legislation and assess the impact of new tax directives with ease.

Introducing students to the other main aspects of “EU tax law”, this course complements the content of “EU Tax Law I: Fundamental Freedoms” by covering the most important pieces of EU direct tax legislation. The course builds on student’s basic knowledge of national and international tax law and rather more fundamental understanding of EU law, but does not require detailed knowledge of the interaction between fundamental freedoms and taxation. Specifically, EU Tax Law II: –        recapitulates the legal framework for the creation of EU tax legislation;-        analyses its positioning between primary EU law and national law and its effects in this legal dynamic;provides a detailed insight into the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, the Interest-Royalties Directive, the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive, the GloBE Directive, the DACs (the directives covering exchange of information within the EU), the Tax Dispute Resolution Directive and the FASTER directive. It also discusses pending legislative proposals in direct taxation. 

• Course title: Course 1 – Company Law and M&A
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-EITL-7
• Module(s): Module 4 – Investment Taxation
• Language: FR, EN
• Mandatory: Yes

• Course title: Course 2 – Taxation of financial transactions
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-20
• Module(s): Module 4 – Investment Taxation
• Language: EN
• Mandatory: Yes

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to:-    Distinguish the main financial instruments and certain financial transactions;-    Analyse the Luxembourg (and international) tax consequences of issuing, entering into and holding those instruments and transactions;-    Apprehend the conceptional thinking as to optimize the taxation of a fund structure from an international tax planning perspective

The objective and purpose of this course is summarized by its very title, which means it will focus on the taxation of financial instruments. The objective of this course is that it will provide you with the basic concepts of taxation of financial instruments in industrialized countries as well as their practical use. Some of the most important of them to be covered are: tax treatment of debt vs. equity, taxation of new financial instruments, an overview of the taxation of certain financial transactions, as well as their specific tax treatment in Luxembourg. The course will also cover certain legal, accounting as well as wider tax areas (e.g. BEPS, FTT, Relibi) which may have an impact on the structuring of financial instruments.   Education on the taxation of Luxembourg investment funds and international tax structuring for investment policy  

• Course title: Course 1 – Tax policy
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-EITL-8
• Module(s): Module 5 – Elective courses
• Language: EN
• Mandatory: No

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):

Estimate the consequences of taxation on economic operator’s choices and thus the economy as a whole

Discuss positive and negative effects of certain policy choices at an academic level

Examine the basic economics of taxation

Identify and criticise ideas and proposals made in either an academic or political (real-world) context

This course provides an introduction into economic theory and concepts and how these relate to taxation. The course will teach the tools necessary to understand how taxation affects prices, saving and investment choices, distorts consumption patterns and work effort, relates to risk taking and the production and distribution of wealth within an economy. Students will thus acquire skills that enable them to ‘look behind the law’ and to scrutinise the complex legal incarnations of theoretical concepts in practice.  Furthermore, a thorough analysis of various taxes (including both practical examples from different countries and ‘blueprint’ concepts) will allow the students to understand the difficult choices that influence the practice of tax policy making and the unavoidable trade-off between differing economic, legal, political and philosophical ideals.  The course provides the students with an understanding of key design issues for all the main tax laws common around the world and will so enable them to evaluate and criticise the merits of practical tax reform concepts.

• Course title: Course 2 – Tax procedure
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-22
• Module(s): Module 5 – Elective courses
• Language: FR
• Mandatory: No

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):

Expliquer les enjeux de la maitrise des procédures fiscales dans l’exercice des métiers de conseils ou avocat fiscal 

Déterminer les actes et délais qui jalonnent les procédures précontentieuses fiscales 

Conseiller et accompagner le contribuable dans ses relations avec l’administration fiscale

Dialoguer avec l’administration pour le compte du contribuable 

Répondre aux demandes 

Défendre les intérêts, les droits et garanties des contribuables

Le cours couvre les règles juridiques qui jalonnent les procédures fiscales luxembourgeoises dans les contextes européen et international.La protection des droits et obligations des contribuables est en cette matière juridique une préoccupation majeure qui régit les relations entre l’administration fiscale et le contribuable.  Le processus d’élaboration de la décision d’imposition est examiné de manière circonstanciée et argumentée, notamment par l’examen de la jurisprudence fiscale. La compréhension des règles régissant la procédure administrative contentieuse d’établissement de l’impôt est indispensable pour les praticiens de l’impôt. La méconnaissance des règles de droit expose le contribuable à des pertes financières. Les sujets abordés sont : La procédure d’imposition Les rôles des différentes entités impliquées dans l’administration fiscale Les procédures de contrôle Les procédures de redressement Les règles de prescriptionLes recours administratifs et contentieux Les garanties, les sanctions

• Course title: Course 3 – Value Added Tax
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-23
• Module(s): Module 5 – Elective courses
• Language: FR, EN
• Mandatory: No

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to:-      Identify the logic and principles of the EU VAT-      Describe with clarity the rules governing different types of transactions and the difficulties and solutions for the ensuing complexity-      Advise on VAT compliance obligations and catch potential “red flags” in practice-      Assess the indirect tax treatment of the most common domestic and cross-border transactions (delivery of goods/supplies of services; e.g. financial services and real estate transactions)-      Quickly grasp the impact of new case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and apply the outcome of the cases to real-life cases

This course covers the basics of value-added tax with a particular focus on aspects of particular relevance in Luxembourg such cross-border transactions and financial sector activities.  The course introduces EU legislation on VAT, but the main focus lies in Luxembourg’s implementation of those rules. Intensive discussion of key jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice on selected important aspects completes preparation of students to solve complex cases in practice.

• Course title: Moot Court
• Number of ECTS: 5
• Course code: MADE4-94
• Module(s): Module 5 – Elective courses
• Language: EN
• Mandatory: No

• Course title: Tax Practice Workshop
• Number of ECTS: 10
• Course code: MADE4-EITL-9
• Module(s): Module 6 – Final paper
• Language: EN
• Mandatory: No

On completion of the course unit successful students will be able to (using action verbs):Apply the knowledge acquired throughout the programme to practical problems that are frequently encountered in tax lawRespond to fact patterns described in a realistic and incomplete way in a professional and helpful mannerFind latest case law in Luxembourg and other jurisdictions to give answers to problems posed beyond the scope of the issues described in courses

This course has a dual aim: First, it consolidates the knowledge and skills acquired in all previous courses, in particular from the first semester, with practical exercises that both test students’ retention of the content of other classes and showcase their useful application in practice Second, it introduces particular topical subjects that are of particular practical relevance and have not been discussed in other classes, often because they have only become relevant during the academic year  The course is thus a key element towards the finalisation of students’ progress towards mastery of the taught subjects and an opportunity to ensure that they are up to date with latest developments in the law when they graduate.

• Course title: Master Thesis
• Number of ECTS: 10
• Course code: MADE4-25
• Module(s): Module 6 – Final paper
• Language: FR, EN
• Mandatory: No