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School of Law

Aleksandar Ivanovski

Aleksandar

PhD Student

Email: a.ivanovski@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

Thesis title

The Interaction of EU State Aid Law and Tax: Towards Sustainable Tax Rulings Framework

Supervisors

Dr Maria Ioannidou and Professor Christiana Panayi

Biography

Aleksandar is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, and a Teaching Assistant in European Union Law at the Undergraduate Law Programme. As a previous affiliate of the Task Force Tax Planning Practices at European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition, Aleksandar reviewed tax rulings of EU Member states in the context of their State aid law compliance, and assisted the European Commission in its State aid tax investigations. While in employment for the national Revenue administration of Macedonia, Aleksandar handled cases related to corporate income tax, VAT and carousel fraud, and worked on the pilot projects ‘horizontal monitoring’ and ‘desk audit’. Aleksandar completed a Master’s degree in Taxation (London), with a dissertation on the topic of State aid challenges for taxation of multinational companies, which was awarded with Distinction. He also holds a degree in law (University of Skopje) and a postgraduate law degree (LLM) in international and European Law (University of Amsterdam). Aleksandar is a Chevening scholar of UK government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and a member of the UK Competition Law Association. He speaks Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian, Bosnian and German.

Summary of research

Corporate tax arrangements of multinational companies with national tax authorities are subject to State aid scrutiny, ensuring that no entity receives selective treatment that could amount to unfair market advantage. With a view of ensuring a level­-playing field, State aid law prevents the use of tax systems within the EU to privilege certain companies when compared with other entities in a similar factual and legal situation. This research builds on, and contributes to the UK and European legal scholarship on fiscal State aid by identifying the legal boundaries of the substantive State aid assessment of Member states’ tax practices. The research also takes into account post-Brexit implications of EU State aid law in the context of rights of competitors. Particular focus of Aleksandar’s research is examining the operation, scope and impact of individually negotiated tax measures, such as tax rulings. In order to establish the legal boundaries of the scrutiny, the thesis takes into account the notions of equal treatment and non-discrimination as principles stemming from European Union law.

Research

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