These nine articles analyze the decisions made by the Supreme Court and Tax Court of Canada, specifically addressing the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) in section 245 of the Canadian Income Tax Act. More generally, the book reflects on the role of a GAAR by considering other cases in Canada and abroad, as well as the design and implementation of an effective GAAR.
Proposes a uniform statutory GAAR for the Federation of Australia, and examines "the experiences of countries with (e.g., Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) and without (e.g., the United States of America and the United Kingdom) a statutory GAAR"--Page ix.
This book is a detailed and comprehensive study on the taxation of cross-border dividend distributions. It first considers cross-border dividend taxation in the context of EU law. In this field, issues such as the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, the hindrance to the internal market caused by double taxation of dividends and the compatibility of dividend withholding taxes are dealt with. Next, the book discusses the taxation of dividends under tax treaties, in particular focusing on the definition of "dividends" in the OECD Model Convention and the meaning of the concept of "beneficial owner" as applied to dividends. The application of domestic and agreement-based anti-abuse rules to dividends is thoroughly analysed. Finally, the relevance of the non-discrimination provision enshrined in Art. 24 of the OECD Model Convention to dividends as well as procedural issues relating to treaty relief and possible ways of improvement are taken into consideration. Individual country surveys provide an in-depth analysis of the above issues from a national viewpoint in selected European and non-European jurisdictions.
This book is a comprehensive, up-to-date treatise on income tax law in Canada. The book introduces students and practitioners to income tax law in its broadest dimensions. It addresses the subject matter based on principles, policy, and practice. The objective is to explain what the law is, why it is the way it is, and how it works (or does not).
GAARS: the better insight into a country’s tax system In a post-BEPS tax world and in times of an ever-increasing need for tax revenue, policy-makers are more willing than ever to tighten or adopt General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAARs). A GAAR is typically a broad principle-based rule trying to establish the borderline between “abuse” and “use” of a law, thereby addressing the phenomenon that as long as there have been taxes, persons have been trying to reduce their tax bills. This award-winning book compares the GAARs and judicial anti-avoidance approaches of Germany, the UK and the EU. It gives a deep insight into the predominant legal traditions of the Western World, comprehensively analyses case-law and offers unique perspectives on tax law across jurisdictions. This book reveals that there is no other feature of tax law that provides a better insight into a country’s tax system than its anti-avoidance rules. GAARs and their historical background reveal so much about judicial perspectives on taxation and legal interpretation, citizens’ tax morale, drafters’ inclinations for technical or principled drafting or legislators’ willingness to confront politically sensitive issues. Understanding the role of GAARs ultimately also reveals whether they are a suitable means to counteract tax avoidance effectively. The Book is the winner of the Wolfgang Gassner-Wissenschaftspreis 2016!
The effects of the growth of multinational enterprises and globalization in the past fifty years have been profound, and many multinational enterprises, such as international banks, now operate around the world through branches known as permanent establishments. The business profits article (Article 7) of the OECD model tax treaty attributes a multinational enterprise's business profits to a permanent establishment in a host country for tax purposes. Michael Kobetsky analyses the principles for allocating the profits of multinational enterprises to permanent establishments under this article, explains the shortcomings of the current arm's length principle for attributing business profits to permanent establishments and considers the alternative method of formulary apportionment for allocating business profits.
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) war on offshore tax evasion. The authors explain the new emerging regulatory regimes on the global exchange of information to combat offshore tax evasion and analyse why Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) is not a “magic bullet” solution. Chapters include coverage of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), AEOI and the Common Reporting Standards (CRS), and the unprecedented extra-territorial enforcement by the United States of its tax and reporting laws, including the FBAR provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act. These new legal regimes directly impact nearly all financial institutions and financial service providers in the U.S., U.K., EU, Canada, and each of the 132 member jurisdictions of the OECD’s Global Forum, as well as 8 million U.S. expats. In light of The Panama Papers, this book offers a timely and valuable contribution on the prevalence and costs of international tax evasion for the global financial community, policy-makers, and practitioners alike.
