Issues In International Taxation International Tax Avoidance And Evasion Four Related Studies

The first report outlines the reasons why international tax avoidance and evasion through the use of tax havens is a concern to the tax authorities of OECD Member countries and examines measures introduced to combat such use. The second report sets out the problems posed for tax administrations by the fact that their resident taxpayers make use of base companies (generally subsidiary companies) in tax havens to shelter there income derived from source countries (which may in some cases be the residence country itself) and in that way to escape tax normally payable to the country of residence. The third report deals with the problems created for tax authorities in source countries by the mechanism of "treaty shopping". The final report deals with taxation and the abuse of bank secrecy.

Compilation of four related studies.

This report discusses the State of the Union address, which is a communication between the President and Congress in which the chief executive reports on the current conditions of the United States and provides policy proposals for the upcoming legislative year.

Explains the concepts that underlie international tax law and double tax treaties and provides an insight into how international tax policy, law and practice operate to ultimately impose tax on international business and investment.

This publication, includes four recent reports of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs that have resulted in changes to the Commentary of the Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital.

This paper reviews the rapidly growing empirical literature on international tax avoidance by multinational corporations. It surveys evidence on main channels of corporate tax avoidance including transfer mispricing, international debt shifting, treaty shopping, tax deferral and corporate inversions. Moreover, it performs a meta analysis of the extensive literature that estimates the overall size of profit shifting. We find that the literature suggests that, on average, a 1 percentage-point lower corporate tax rate will expand before-tax income by 1 percent—an effect that is larger than reported as the consensus estimate in previous surveys and tends to be increasing over time. The literature on tax avoidance still has several unresolved puzzles and blind spots that require further research.

Tax competition in the form of harmful tax practices can distort trade and investment patterns, erode national tax bases and shift part of the tax burden onto less mobile tax bases. The Report emphasises that governments must intensify their cooperative actions to curb harmful tax practices.

This book addresses sixteen different reform proposals that are urgently needed to correct the fault lines in the international tax system as it exists today, and which deprive both developing and developed countries of critical tax resources. It offers clear and concrete ideas on how the reforms can be achieved and why they are important for a more just and equitable global system to prevail. The key to reducing the tax gap and consequent human rights deficit in poor countries is global financial transparency. Such transparency is essential to curbing illicit financial flows that drain less developed countries of capital and tax revenues, and are an impediment to sustainable development. A major break-through for financial transparency is now within reach. The policy reforms outlined in this book not only advance tax justice but also protect human rights by curtailing illegal activity and making available more resources for development. While the reforms are realistic they require both political and an informed and engaged civil society that can put pressure on governments and policy makers to act.