Maria Hilling

Maria Hilling, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer, specializes in international tax law. She joined the Lund Faculty of Law in 2010. Prior to that she was an associated professor of law at Linköping University. Hilling was awarded her Doctorate in 2005. Since then she has published widely in the field of international tax law, both nationally and internationally. In addition, she has served as member of editorial boards of Intertax and Skattenytt. In mid-2016, Hilling published the book Skatteavtal och generalklausuler - ett komparativt perspektiv (Tax Treaties and GAAR:s: A Comparative Perspective), which is reviewed by professor Langhave Jeppesen in the Nordic Tax Journal, Vol. 2, 2016.

Hilling's main areas of interest of research include adjudication of income taxation issues in the EU legal context, comparative tax law and tax treaty law; particularly the interaction of tax treaties with law and legal decision makers domestically. She has increasingly undertaken cross-boundary taxation research, involving international law, EU law and constitutional law. Since 2014, she is part of the International Legal Structure Research Group.

Hilling has been visiting scholar at The International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, The Netherlands and at Allard School of Law, University of British Colombia, Canada.

Her ongoing research project - A Comparative Approach to the EU General Anti-Tax Avoidande Rule: Introducing the Element of Legal Culture focus on the fact that after 31 December 2018, all EU Member States are under an obligation to have in force General Anti-Tax Avoidance Rules (GAARs) that correspond to the EU GAAR. The purpose of this research project is to provide timely answers to a key question: “How can differences in tax culture affect the interpretation of the EU GAAR”? This is a momentous question, as a uniform interpretation of the EU GAAR throughout the EU Member States is necessary for the achievement of its objectives: to level the playing field on income tax and limit the distortions which undermine the Internal Market.

Maria Hilling teaches basic and advanced level tax courses within the Master of Laws programme. She is also involved in the supervision of PhD students.

Maria Hilling frequently communicates tax law research to academic audiences and practitioners, nationally and internationally. 

Hilling is one of the founders of Lund Tax Law Academy, which aims to communicate Nordic tax law research to the society at large. The Academy organises five to six open tax law seminars annualy. The seminars are free of charge and typically, its participants are persons from the business and the public sector. Students in tax law are encouraged to participate in the Academy's activities.