The subject of this master thesis is the abuse of rights in EU law in a tax law perspective.

The European Union’s most significant goal is to promote the Internal Market, which raises a lot of conflicts caused by the national interests of the Member States, especially concerning tax. Despite the binding rules within the EU the Member States retain regulatory powers in relation to their own territory. Thus the States are competent to maintain tax rules that aim at preventing tax evasion and tax avoidance.

In addition the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) has established that Member States are allowed to take measures to ensure that Community law is not used in an illegitimate or fraudulent way, also called abuse of EU Law. The abuse of EU law has three scopes. First of all it relates to the fundamental freedoms according to the Treaty on European Union. Second of all it is used to override transactions regarding secondary acts such as the Parents-Subsidiary Directive. Finally the risk of abuse is also recognized by the ECJ as an imperative reason in the public interest used to justify a restriction of the free movements. Finally the

The subject of this thesis is illustrated through an analysis of several cases from the ECJ in-cluding the first case in which the issue of abuse of rights was addressed, Case 33/74, Van Binsbergen. It is concluded that the principle has developed since it was first announced in 1976. Especially within tax law the principle is still getting more and relevant, and it is on the agenda of the EU Institutions to take measures

The European Council has by 27 January 2015 adopted an amendment to the Parents-Subsidiary Directive forcing the Member States to implement an anti-abuse clause to prevent tax evasion. The aim is to avoid the directive from being misused for the purposes of tax avoidance. This clause is basis to a perspective in the last part of the thesis.