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Full-Text Articles in Law
Before International Tax Reform, We Need To Understand Why Firms Invert, Michael S. Knoll
Before International Tax Reform, We Need To Understand Why Firms Invert, Michael S. Knoll
All Faculty Scholarship
A wave of corporate inversions by U.S. firms over the past two decades has generated substantial debate in academic, business, and policy circles.
The core of the debate hinges on a couple of key economic questions: Do U.S. tax laws disadvantage U.S.-domiciled companies relative to their foreign competitors? And, if so, do inversions improve the competitiveness of U.S. multinational firms both abroad and at home?
There is unfortunately little, if any, empirical work directly determining whether U.S.-based MNCs are currently tax-disadvantaged compared to their foreign rivals, or measuring the amount by which (if any) U.S.-based MNCs improve their competitive position …
The Gordian Knot: How The United States, The European Union, And Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development Took Action Against Corporate Tax Avoidance, Katlyn Twomey
Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences
In 2016, the United States had the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Perhaps, the high tax rate could be why American corporations are holding an estimated $2.5 trillion abroad (Cox 2016). According to a study by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. firms pay a measly 3% in tax to foreign governments on those profits, rather than the 35% U.S. corporate tax rate. How are these corporations able to legally avoid paying taxes on a large percentage of their profits? Many use various loopholes in the laws to shift profits into other countries or U.S. states referred to …
The Global Fight Against Base Erosion And Profit Shifting Under The Oecd’S Country-By-Country Reporting Rules: A Possible Solution?, Oladiwura Ayeyemi Eyitayo-Oyesode
The Global Fight Against Base Erosion And Profit Shifting Under The Oecd’S Country-By-Country Reporting Rules: A Possible Solution?, Oladiwura Ayeyemi Eyitayo-Oyesode
LLM Theses
The base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) phenomenon continues to create detrimental consequences in states. BEPS is engendered by two fundamental factors, namely, unhealthy fiscal policies of tax havens and preferential tax regimes, and transfer mispricing by multinational corporations (MNCs). The OECD, through its BEPS Project notes that the lack of transparency in the global activities of MNCs is a major cause of BEPS. To close this gap, the OECD released the CBCR Rules. This thesis discusses the severity of the BEPS phenomenon and assesses the anti-BEPS efforts of the OECD. Upon an assessment of these efforts, this thesis argues …
Citizenship Overreach, Peter J. Spiro
Citizenship Overreach, Peter J. Spiro
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article examines international law limitations on the ascription of citizenship and national self-definition. The United States is exceptionally generous in its extension of citizenship. Alone among the major developed states, it extends citizenship to almost all persons in its territory at the moment of birth. This birthright citizenship is constitutionally protected under the Fourteenth Amendment. At the same time that it is generous at the front end, U.S. citizenship is sticky at the back. Termination of citizenship on the individual’s part can involve substantial fees. Expatriation is contingent on tax compliance and, in some cases, will implicate the recognition …
A Global Perspective On Citizenship-Based Taxation, Allison Christians
A Global Perspective On Citizenship-Based Taxation, Allison Christians
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article contends that, with regard to individuals who reside permanently outside of the United States, the global assistance sought under FATCA to enforce U.S. income taxation solely on the basis of citizenship violates international law. It argues that insisting upon foreign cooperation with the FATCA regime, under threat of serious economic penalties, is inconsistent with universally accepted norms regarding appropriate limits to the state’s jurisdiction to tax, while also being normatively unjustified. Accordingly, FATCA should be rejected by all other nation states to the extent it imposes any obligations with respect to individuals who permanently reside outside of, and …
Minimalism About Residence And Source, Wei Cui
Minimalism About Residence And Source, Wei Cui
Michigan Journal of International Law
In this Article, I relate the discomfort with fundamental principles in taxing individuals’ worldwide income to a problem that has attracted greater attention in recent years: the assignment of geographical sources to income. I suggest that there is substantial similarity between critiques of residence rules (of which critiques of citizenship-based taxation are examples) and critiques of source rules. However, I argue that problematic residence and source rules are only symptoms, not causes, of unsatisfactory conceptual paradigms in international taxation. Many scholars portray source and residence rules as inadequate means for achieving purportedly given normative objectives in the age of intense …
Defining Residence For Income Tax Purposes: Domicile As Gap-Filler, Citizenship As Proxy And Gap-Filler, Edward A. Zelinsky
Defining Residence For Income Tax Purposes: Domicile As Gap-Filler, Citizenship As Proxy And Gap-Filler, Edward A. Zelinsky
Michigan Journal of International Law
In this paper, I place the United States’ adherence to citizenship-based taxation in the context of the states’ tax systems. Forty-one states impose general income taxes on the worldwide incomes of their respective residents. These state tax systems are important repositories of experience that confirm the administrative benefits of citizenship-based taxation. Domicile today plays an important role in state tax systems as a gap-filler when more objective statutory residence laws fail to assign any state of residence to the taxpayer. Citizenship is an administrable proxy for domicile and serves a similar gap-filling role in the taxation of individuals whose income …
Taxation Of Non-Residents' Capital Gains, Wei Cui
Taxation Of Non-Residents' Capital Gains, Wei Cui
All Faculty Publications
Designing and enforcing a legal regime for taxing non-residents on capital gains realized from domestic sources is a topic of vital importance for developing countries. The reason is that non-capital-gain income that may be derived from a given country can generally be crystalized in the form of capital gains on the disposition of the income-generating asset. This is true of most important types of income, be it rent, interest, royalty, dividend or business profit. Taxing capital gains, therefore, is invariably needed to ensure that income from assets in the source country is properly subject to tax. In this sense, capital …