Taxpayers In International Law

This ground-breaking book brings clarity to the dynamically developing field of international tax law. It empowers individuals and corporate taxpayers to navigate their way around and helps tax authorities take taxpayers' rights into account from the beginning. The book is the result of several years of research conducted with the support of the International Law Association. Taxpayers in International Law puts taxpayers' rights on the global international tax agenda as the necessary counterweight and complement to Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). Importantly, it pleads for a global minimum standard of legal protection of the fundamental rights of taxpayers and extracts the content of such rights from relevant constitutional principles of many countries around the world. The book is structured in 3 parts: Part I focusses on the legal sources and on the relations between taxation and international human rights law. Part II identifies general principles and specific taxpayers' rights, groups them into 3 categories (procedural, related to sanctions, and substantive), and analyses the different implications that arise in each of them. Part III features concrete proposals for establishing a global framework for the protection of taxpayers' rights, including guidelines for tax authorities. The book is a unique instrument for the daily work of practitioners and international tax scholars interested in securing the protection of taxpayer's fundamental rights, as well as for those involved in tax collection worldwide. Taxpayers can refer to the book to find out which rulings and concepts can help them enforce their rights; tax authorities and judges can use the book to verify which rights have to be respected.

This publication considers the interpretation of tax treaties primarily from the standpoint of public international law. The principal purpose of this study is to analyse and discuss the rules and principles of international law relevant to the interpretation of treaties in general, and their application to tax treaties in particular. The rules of international law enshrined in articles 31, 32 and 33 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties are therefore central to this study. Where appropriate, reference is made to the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, and to the law and procedure of other international court and tribunals. Considers also the extent to which the relevant rules and principles of international law are binding on domestic court and taxpayers. The importance of international law for the purpose of the interpretation of tax treaties is illustrated by a number of leading cases decided by the Dutch Supreme Court (Hoge Raad).

This Second Edition provides an updated and succinct, yet highly informative overview of the key issues surrounding taxation and international law from Reuven Avi-Yonah, a leading authority on international tax. This small but powerful book surveys the nuances of the varying taxation systems, offering expert insight into the scope, reach and nature of international tax regimes, as well as providing an excellent platform for understanding how the principles of jurisdiction apply to tax and the connected tools that are used by countries in imposing taxes. It includes new material on BEPS, the EU Anti Tax Avoidance Package, and the US Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

In this fresh, objective, and non-argumentative volume in the Elements of International Law series, Peter Hongler combines a comprehensive overview of the technical content of the international tax law regime with an assessment of its crucial relationship to wider international law. Beginning with an assessment of legal principles and foundations, the book considers key general principles, treaty based regimes, and regional integration in tax matters. In the second half of the work Hongler places international tax law in the context of its wider relationships with human rights law, and trade and investment law. He concludes by considering major legal successes and failures and what might be done to address these.

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.

An in-depth analysis of various aspects of multilateral cooperation in tax law Tax evasion and aggressive tax planning causing base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) has been a widely discussed topic among academics and tax policy makers over the past decades. Increasing globalization and digitalization have contributed to the intensification of this issue in recent years. At the same time, states continue to largely insist on their sovereignty in the area of tax law. However, due to their cross-border nature, issues related to BEPS are shared problems among the states and can typically not be solved by a single nation. Therefore, multilateral cooperation represents an option to build a bridge between the states’ demand for sovereignty and the problems caused by BEPS. In this regard, the OECD, the UN, and the EU play an important role in introducing international tax standards in an attempt to effectively address tax evasion and aggressive tax planning in many ways. The interaction and cooperation between different international, supranational (EU), and regional organizations is an ongoing process. In this context, the topic "Multilateral Cooperation in Tax Law" was selected as the general topic for the master’s theses of the part-time 2021-23 class of the postgraduate LL.M. programme in International Tax Law at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business). This volume aims to develop academic insights, provide practical guidance, and enable an in-depth analysis of various aspects of this topic. The book is divided into four parts. The first part deals with a general overview of the understanding of multilateral cooperation, the background that led to the need for multilateral cooperation and the different stakeholders that play a relevant role in it. While the chapters included in the second part focus on the most important developments on an international level (OECD and UN), the chapters encompassed in the third part analyse the multilateral cooperation initiatives of the EU. Finally, the chapters included in part four deal with selected issues related to multilateral cooperation in tax law, including mutual assistance and exchange of information, dispute resolution mechanisms, and measures in digitalized businesses.

The first part of the book contains a brief description, by way of preliminary information, of the nature and sources of international law (including international tax law), the interplay of customary and conventional international law with the municipal law, and the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties. Part II deals mainly with the subject of the impact of public and private international law on the legislative and enforcement jurisdictions of sovereign states; the jurisdictional immunities available under the international law; and the law of sea. Part III mainly deals with the nature and occurrence of double taxation; evolution of various methods for the purpose of avoidance of the cumulative burden on taxpayers.