A historical analysis of tax competitiveness between EU member states

We demonstrate that the dynamics of tax competitiveness in the EU has gained a new higher level. The shift in the tax competition can be noted after new countries have joined the EU. Both positive and negative effects of tax competitiveness are discussed in the paper and the question of trade-off between the strong tax competitiveness of a country and magnitude of its tax revenue is raised. Evaluation of chosen countries using multiple criteria decision aid methods (MCDA) shed more light on the opposition of two groups of countries, the old and new members of the EU, provided more details on the both the present state and dynamics of tax competitiveness in the. The evaluation methodology can be successfully used for monitoring the current state of tax competitiveness of each member country. Prominence of the multiple criteria evaluation TOPSIS method of MCDA evaluation is described. Keywords: Competitiveness of countries, tax system, tax competition, tax revenues, multiple criteria evaluation, TOPSIS.