At first sight, the European Court of Justice (ECJ)’s judgment in Cartesio looks like a victory for the European Union Member States collecting exit taxes from migrating companies. A closer look reveals that Cartesio is applicable only to a small portion of possible migration scenarios. As a result, exit taxation of the majority of company migration scenarios is likely to infringe the European fundamental freedoms. The author arrives at this conclusion by analyzing the ECJ’s case law on exit taxation of individuals, elaborating on its correlation with Daily Mail and Cartesio, and applying the deducted principles to different scenarios of company migrations.
Intertax