Taxes in our life

The EU does not have a direct role in raising taxes or setting tax rates. The amount of tax you pay is decided by your government. The EU's role is to support implementation of national tax rules – to ensure they are consistent with certain EU policies, such as:

• promoting economic growth and job creation
• ensuring the free flow of goods, services and capital around the EU (in the single market)
• making sure businesses in one country don't have an unfair advantage over competitors in another
• ensuring taxes don't discriminate against consumers, workers or businesses from other EU countries

EU decisions on tax matters require unanimous agreement by individual governments. This ensures that the interests of every single EU country are taken into account.

The EU also has legislation on cooperation between tax authorities, transparency, tax avoidance, recovery of tax claims and VAT and excise duties.

This course is aimed at young adults. It includes information relevant to this particular phase in life, as young people make the transition to adulthood (do they have to pay tax when they start university, launch their business, work in another country, etc.).

 

Chapter 1: When taxes appear in youngsters’ life!
At the end of this chapter, you will have a better understanding of:

what is income tax what is employment income
the negative effects of ‘shadow economy’ and ‘grey economy’ on individuals
the role of the social security contributions paid by employees

Chapter 2: How to start a business
At the end of this chapter, you will have:

a good representation of the concept of intellectual property
a better understanding of the difference between different types of taxes
a brief description of a applicable taxing incentive
a good representation of the concept of micro-company
a better understanding of VAT and MOSS scheme

Chapter 3: Employment income
At the end of this chapter, you will be able:

to understand what is an employment relationship
to define what employment income is
to identify how the income tax applies
to identify the impact of social security contributions on employment income
to identify how you can avoid double taxation

Chapter 4: Business income
At the end of this chapter, you will be able:

to understand what self-employed persons mean
to understand the taxing rules applicable for self-employed persons
to discover how to avoid double taxation as self-employed person
to understand how VAT functions for self-employed persons

Chapter 5: Assessment