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Full-Text Articles in Law
Portrait Of A Tax Transplant Artist, Kim Brooks
Portrait Of A Tax Transplant Artist, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This article explores the process of norm migration through the study of one tax expert, Victor Thuronyi. It situates the literature on the role of experts in tax norm migration and identifies core themes and gaps in the tax transplant literature; explores five themes, connected to the literature on the role of tax experts and tax transplants, that arise from a study of Victor Thuronyi’s contributions to tax transplantation; and concludes with some reflections on the benefits and challenges of having highly specialized, non-insider tax experts engaged in the exercise of drafting tax laws.
Tim Edgar: The Accidental Comparatist, Kim Brooks
Tim Edgar: The Accidental Comparatist, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This paper focuses on the contributions of Tim Edgar as a major comparative law scholar. It reviews the major debates and theoretical directions in comparative law scholarship and offers a case study of Edgar’s contributions in the light of the major debates in comparative law. Edgar’s development as a comparatist is traced through three defined phases. His identification of the policy problem to be resolved is highlighted as a major feature of his contribution.
The Ethical Tax Judge, Kim Brooks
The Ethical Tax Judge, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This chapter advances the claim that judges have an ethical obligation of competence that requires them to enhance their knowledge about language (in the context of statutory interpretation) and income tax law design and policy. It articulates some of the foundational understandings that support that competence and provides a simple hierarchy of approaches to interpreting income tax law. It concludes by contending that greater competence is not only more ethical but also advances other important societal goals fulfilled by the imposition of income tax systems.
Feminist Statutory Interpretation, Kim Brooks
Feminist Statutory Interpretation, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Leading Canadian scholar Ruth Sullivan describes the act of statutory interpretation as a mix of art and archaeology. The collection, Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Tax Opinions, affirms her assessment. If the act of statutory interpretation requires us to deploy our interdisciplinary talents, at least somewhat unmoored from the constraints of formal expressions of legal doctrine, why haven’t feminists been more inclined to write about statutory interpretation? Put another way, some scholars acknowledge that judges “are subtly influenced by preconceptions, endemic privilegings and power hierarchies, and prevailing social norms and ‘conventional’ wisdom.” Those influences become the background for how judges read legislation. …
The High Cost Of Transferring The Dream, Kim Brooks
The High Cost Of Transferring The Dream, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This paper is part of a larger project where I use the facts in tax decisions to reveal something about who we are. It looks through a small window into the lives of the people who find themselves caught between our collective and their individual expenditure aspirations. More specifically, it explores the circumstances in which individuals find that their outstanding tax debts pose a threat to their ability to maintain ownership of their home. In this paper I use the facts of tax cases for two ends. First, I am interested in disrupting legal knowledge hierarchies. We choose cases to …
International Tax Policy: The Counter-Story Presented By The Brics, Kim Brooks
International Tax Policy: The Counter-Story Presented By The Brics, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This chapter focuses on the international tax policy directions of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS). The BRICS countries present something of a counter-story to the narrative that international tax law has harmonized. These five countries, major economic and trade players in the world but not members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have developed their international tax policy with an eye to the approach suggested by the OECD, but not necessarily in conformity with its strictures. This chapter explores the international tax policy directions of the BRICS jurisdictions under the familiar, broad heads of …
The Supreme Court's 2013 Tax Cases: Side-Stepping The Interesting, Important And Difficult Issues, William Neil Brooks, Kim Brooks
The Supreme Court's 2013 Tax Cases: Side-Stepping The Interesting, Important And Difficult Issues, William Neil Brooks, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada heard three tax cases. Our review of the year argues that the Court resolved those cases by relying on narrow formalistic points that did little to advance our understanding of tax principles of tax law. In particular, the Court was invited to consider the tax treatment of contingent liabilities assumed by the buyer in a sale of business assets; the taxation of amalgamations that do not meet the qualifying conditions for the applicable rollover provision; and the conditions under which rectification should be available in tax planning.
The Supreme Court's 2012 Tax Cases: Formalism Trumps Pragmatism And Good Sense, William Neil Brooks, Kim Brooks
The Supreme Court's 2012 Tax Cases: Formalism Trumps Pragmatism And Good Sense, William Neil Brooks, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The Supreme Court of Canada released decisions in four cases in the 2012 year. We argue that each illustrates the Court's formalistic approach to interpreting tax legislation. Each of the following four cases is evaluated in turn. Canada v Craig relates to the circumstances under which a taxpayer can offset losses incurred in a farming business against income earned from a completely different source. Fundy Settlement v Canada required determining the residency of a trust for tax purposes. Canada v GlaxoSmithKline Inc. focused on the circumstances to be taken into account in determining an arm's-length price in the transfer pricing …
The Meaning Of 'Enterprise,' 'Business' And 'Business Profits' Under Tax Treaties And Eu Tax Law (Canada), Kim Brooks
The Meaning Of 'Enterprise,' 'Business' And 'Business Profits' Under Tax Treaties And Eu Tax Law (Canada), Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This chapter explores the meaning of business as it is used in Canadian income tax law given the four purposes that concept serves.
A Comment On Watersheds: Runoff From The Tax Code, Kim Brooks
A Comment On Watersheds: Runoff From The Tax Code, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The role of tax as an instrument of social and economic policy has recently come to the fore in debates about the environment. This paper provides a short comment on a paper authored by Janet Milne that explores the incentive effects of the tax code on watershed protection.
The Potential Of Multilateral Tax Treaties, Kim Brooks
The Potential Of Multilateral Tax Treaties, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This short chapter canvasses alternative possible approaches governments could adopt if they were serious about better coordinating and possibly harmonizing international tax regimes; explores the potential advantages of using multilateral tax treaties; evaluates the CARICOM multilateral double tax treaty; and concludes by urging the pursuit of multilateral and collective solutions to international tax law design.
Residence Of Companies Under Tax Treaties And Ec Law (Canada), Kim Brooks
Residence Of Companies Under Tax Treaties And Ec Law (Canada), Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This chapter reviews the development and present Canadian law on the residence of corporations for tax purposes. It highlights a few of the elements of Canada's corporate law regime by way of context; outlines why residence matters to corporations for Canadian tax purposes, traces the history of the Canadian tests for corporate residence, explains how the Canadian Income Tax Act addresses continuances, and reviews the approach to the determination of corporate residence reflected in Canada's tax treaties.
Tax Sparing: A Needed Incentive For Foreign Investment In Low-Income Countries Or An Unnecessary Revenue Sacrifice?, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Low income countries often offer tax incentives to induce foreign investment, but the effectiveness of these measures may he limited by the domestic tax practices of investors' high income home countries. Most high-income countries provide a tax credit for the amount of tax paid to a foreign jurisdiction on the international profits of resident companies or individuals. Where no tax, or reduced tax, is paid to the foreign jurisdiction because of a tax incentive, the result is that the investor pays the same amount of tax they would have paid in the absence of the tax incentive, but simply pays …
Canada's Evolving Tax Treaty Policy Toward Low-Income Countries, Kim Brooks
Canada's Evolving Tax Treaty Policy Toward Low-Income Countries, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Relative to at least some high-income countries, Canada has been willing to negotiate tax treaties that leave greater jurisdiction to tax (ie. more source jurisdiction) to low-income countries in its tax treaties. Nevertheless, Canada's tax treaty policy has not been overwhelmingly generous. This essay takes as its starting point Alex Easson's 1988 paper, The Evolution of Canada's Tax Treaty Policy Since the Royal Commission on Taxation. Focusing on the evolution of Canada's tax treaty policy since 1988, the essay examines three aspects of Canada's tax treaties that might increase the scope for source-based taxation by low-income countries. First, it examines …
International And Ec Tax Aspects Of Groups Of Companies (Canada), Kim Brooks
International And Ec Tax Aspects Of Groups Of Companies (Canada), Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This short, largely descriptive piece reviews some of the history and reasons as to why the consolidation of corporate groups has not been adopted in the Canadian income tax legislation. Canada is unique becuase it is one of a very limited number of high-income countries with no formal consolidate regime. After a brief review of the history of consolidated reporting in Canada, the piece describes some of the instances where a mutuality of interest between corporations is recognized, the objectives of recognizing a group of corporations in these instances, and the measures of relatedness used to group corporations. Measures that …
Tax Treaty Treatment Of Royalty Payments From Low-Income Countries: A Comparison Of Canada And Australia’S Policies, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The proposal made in this paper is a modest one: that high-income countries should further the cause of reducing global inequality by ensuring that in their tax treaties with low-income countries they do not usurp needed revenues by reducing low-income countries' ability to collect tax on income with a source in the low-income country. This argument is made in the specific context of the taxation of royalty payments, which present one of the most extreme examples of high-income countries unfairly confiscating revenues that appropriately belong to their low-income treaty partners. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) model tax …
Learning To Live With An Imperfect Tax: A Defence Of The Corporate Tax, Kim Brooks
Learning To Live With An Imperfect Tax: A Defence Of The Corporate Tax, Kim Brooks
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Following an introduction, the paper is divided into two parts followed by a conclusion. Part II reviews a number of objectives of the corporate tax, arguing that they should carry more weight as arguments in favour of the corporate tax than they are often attributed. Furthermore, while it is conceded that the corporate tax is a second or even an nth best tax for achieving these objectives, there are simply no administratively feasible or politically acceptable alternatives to it. The arguments reviewed in the paper are as follows. First, by taxing income from capital, the corporate tax increases the comprehensiveness, …