Tax Law And Development

'Anyone working on tax policy for middle and low income countries will consider this book a must-read. Economic globalization of capital markets and multinational corporations has overtaken the abilities of many countries to tax incomes of multinationals and individual residents. From extraction industries to fiscal federalism, the papers demonstrate the importance of sound legal frameworks and formal cooperation across multiple countries and levels of government for implementing sound tax policy in developing nations.' – Michael J. Wasylenko, Syracuse University, US Comprising original essays written by top legal scholars, this innovative volume is the most comprehensive collection to date of independent academic work exploring the relationship between tax, law and development. Contributors cover a range of tax issues, drawing on economic, political, social, and institutional perspectives to offer a comprehensive view of how tax laws affect and are affected by human economic development. Hailing from across the globe, contributors offer expert insight into tax issues in China, Brazil, South Africa, India, and other developing countries. Following a thorough examination of current policy approaches to tax problems in developing nations, the writers conclude that new solutions are needed, and outline a number of groundbreaking ideas and proposals designed to mitigate many of the problems associated with tax law and economic development. Professors, students, and researchers with an interest in tax, law, development, and globalization will find much to admire in this critical and groundbreaking addition to the literature.

This volume examines the tax systems of some twenty countries to determine whether their tax laws are used to support growth and development across borders in lower-income and poor countries. Given the critical economic development needs of poorer countries and the importance of stability in these regions to the security of populations throughout the world, the use of a country’s tax laws to support investment in the developing world gains crucial significance. This book explores whether international standards promoting the fundamental values of the major tax systems of the world accommodate incentives for these nations. In addition, it analyzes the way in which adoption of principles by higher income nations to protect their own revenue bases has a spill-over effect, impairing the ability of developing countries to sustain their economies. Following an introduction that synthesizes worldwide trends, the volume contains separate chapters for a variety of countries detailing the underlying goals and values of each system and the way in which the decision to employ (or not employ) incentives accommodates those ends. The chapters include reports for: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Maldives, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, and Venezuela. The volume memorializes the work of the General Reporter and National Reporters at the Taxation and Development session of the 19th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law held in July, 2014, in Vienna, Austria.

In an age when cross-border business transactions are increasingly effected without the transference of physical products, revenue concerns of states have led to a multitude of tax disputes based on the concept of ‘nexus’. This important and timely book is the most authoritative to date to discuss one of the major tax topics of our time – the question of how taxing rights on income generated from cross-border activities in the digital age should be allocated among jurisdictions. Demonstrating in prodigious depth that it is the economic nexus of the tax entity or activity with the state, and not the physical nexus, which meets the jurisdictional requirement, the author – a leading authority on this area who is a Senior Commissioner of Income Tax and a Member of the Dispute Resolution Panel of the Government of India – addresses such dimensions of the subject as the following: whether a strict territorial nexus as a normative principle is ingrained in source rule jurisprudence; detailed scrutiny of such classical doctrines as benefit theory, neutrality theory, and internation equity; comparative critique of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and United Nation (UN) model tax treaties; whether international law and customary principles mandate a strict territorial link with the source state for the assumption of tax jurisdiction; whether the economic nexus-based tax jurisdiction and absence of a physical presence breach the constitutional doctrine of extraterritoriality or due process; and whether retrospective tax legislation breaches the principle of constitutional fairness. The book offers a politically informed analysis of the nexus principle and balances the dynamics of physical presence and economic nexus standards, based on an in-depth survey of the historical evolution of judicial pronouncements and international practices in this regard. Dr Singh’s book exposes an urgently needed missing link in the international source rule literature and takes a giant step towards solving the thorny question of appropriate tax apportionment. It sheds brilliant light on the policies states may adopt when signing new tax treaties, so that unintended results may be foreseen and avoided. Tax practitioners, taxation authorities, and academic researchers in the field of international tax law and policy will greatly appreciate the book’s forthright enhancement of the ability to defend challenges based on the nexus doctrine.

This volume examines the tax systems of some twenty countries to determine whether their tax laws are used to support growth and development across borders in lower-income and poor countries. Given the critical economic development needs of poorer countries and the importance of stability in these regions to the security of populations throughout the world, the use of a country’s tax laws to support investment in the developing world gains crucial significance. This book explores whether international standards promoting the fundamental values of the major tax systems of the world accommodate incentives for these nations. In addition, it analyzes the way in which adoption of principles by higher income nations to protect their own revenue bases has a spill-over effect, impairing the ability of developing countries to sustain their economies. Following an introduction that synthesizes worldwide trends, the volume contains separate chapters for a variety of countries detailing the underlying goals and values of each system and the way in which the decision to employ (or not employ) incentives accommodates those ends. The chapters include reports for: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Maldives, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, and Venezuela. The volume memorializes the work of the General Reporter and National Reporters at the Taxation and Development session of the 19th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law held in July, 2014, in Vienna, Austria.

This open access volume addresses the link between international taxation, the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the medium-term revenue strategy concept. It also analyses how countries and governments can reinforce this link in current and future initiatives in international taxation, including the base erosion profit shifting project initiated by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development with the political mandate of the G20. It discusses the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda that are relevant for taxation and assesses the current work done by international organizations, regional tax organizations and countries to achieve these Sustainable Development Goals. The contributions to this volume provide an interdisciplinary mix of expertise in tax law, international political economy, global governance and international relations. Through these different perspectives, this volume provides an elaborate reference and evaluation framework for multilateral cooperation on tax and development to strengthen the revenue system of developed and developing countries. This topical volume is of interest to students and researchers of the social sciences, law and economics, as well as policy makers working on taxation.

With a century of solid theory behind it, tax law confronts a new reality: the weakening of the tenacious link between the sovereignty of states and taxation. Yet it is to the continuity of certain themes and principles inherent in the various national tax systems that tax law scholarship continues to look, even as it develops new principles designed to meet the expanding processes of internationalization. This completely updated collection of essays offers an expert comparative analysis, conducted by a sample of the best international tax law scholars, of the fundamental theory of tax law and of the prospects in the near future of tax legislative systems. The emphasis falls naturally on tax theory, jurisprudence, and legislative development in the Member States of the European Union (particularly in Italy, Germany, and Spain), where the process of tax harmonization has been under way for many years. The effect of these processes, via the relevant tax treaties, on the tax systems of Japan and the United States provides a secondary emphasis. Practitioners and academics in tax law will find in this book an invaluable understanding of the challenges that tax law theory strives to meet at this crucial moment in economic history. The essays present a full and reliable exposition of the current theoretical approaches adopted by the various schools of thought in the field, as well as of the main contributions of jurisprudence.

This book describes how the Swedish tax system has evolved since World War II and how political parties, and to a greater extent how individual politicians, influential lobbyists, special interest and other groups involved in the legislative process, have acted and influenced the final result. After an introduction to the Swedish political system and the scope for external influence, the author discusses fiscal trends in Sweden from 1948 to 1990, the tax reform of the century, designing new corporate taxation, designing new individual taxation, political implications, some important battles after the tax reform, abolition of the inheritance tax and retention of the wealth tax, the issue of property taxation, taxation of close companies, fiscal policy of the moderate/liberal government between 2006 and 2010, and EU fiscal policy.

The phenomenal internationalization of taxation occurring in recent years has called for a second edition of this classic handbook. Even though a quarter of a century has passed, the farsighted first edition has remained in constant use worldwide and has even grown in importance. Now it has been thoroughly updated by the author, who has brought his piercing insight to bear on the current world of international tax law while retaining the book’s practical format, structure of primary materials, and detailed commentary. Emphasizing the need for an international consciousness in relation to issues of taxation, Professor Qureshi focuses extensively on the problems associated with fiscal jurisdiction, international constraints in domestic taxation, double taxation, and tax evasion and avoidance. In particular the following are covered: treaty law with specific reference to taxation; fiscal aspects of international monetary, investment, and trade law; enforcement of international tax claims; exchange of information; assistance in recovery of tax claims; mechanisms for the resolution of international tax disputes; base erosion and profit shifting in the framework of public international law; and contribution of international institutions to fiscal capacity development. Assimilating in one source the basic materials in public international law germane to taxation – including cases, texts of international agreements, discourse in secondary sources, and incisive commentary, all updated to the present – this new edition of the most authoritative and important book in its field will be of immeasurable value to tax practitioners worldwide, national taxation authorities, international institutions, and the international tax community more generally.