Abstract:

Tax  convergence  among  the  Member  States  is  one  of  the  long-term  objectives  of  the European  Union.  In  order to  reach  this  goal,  mutual  fiscal  policies  are  constantly  being debated and proposals for new tax directives are being discussed. In this context, the current study provides an analysis of the convergence trend of taxation in the European Union using the overall tax burden to describe the fiscal systems of the Member States. By applying both statistical analysis and sigma-convergence, we have concluded that the effects of the global financial  crisis  have affected the tax convergence tendency  which existed  in the European Union until 2008.