The Institute for Research in Economic and Fiscal Issues (IREF) was founded in 2002 by representatives of the civil society coming from the academic and business world and willing to establish an efficient platform to investigate fiscal and taxation questions. As a matter of fact, taxation may be considered as a many-faceted issue and existing studies are mostly incomplete if not biased. The need to explore systematically and completely the question was obvious to IREF’s founding members. It can be asserted that this need has also an emergency aspect. Tax studies can no longer ignore the globalisation process and the consequences of this evolution on the magnitude of tax competition.

Nowadays IREF’s research interests are numerous and range from taxation to education, from public spending to housing, from health care to retirement. Policy makers are currently under the strain of two opposite forces: centralisation and harmonization on one hand, devolution and competition and globalization on the other hand. Eager to cross knowledge from economics, statistics, law studies and politics, IREF seeks to create a starting place for thoughts and proposals about various economic policies. In order to achieve its goals, IREF is editing books, reports and academic studies. IREF’s experts are covering the European current events related to taxation and economic policy and you can find every week on our website their comments and analysis.