Tax Law Commons^™

Delaware's New Competition, William J. Moon

Faculty Scholarship

According to the standard account in American corporate law, states compete to supply corporate law to American corporations, with Delaware dominating the market. This “competition” metaphor in turn informs some of the most important policy debates in American corporate law.

This Article complicates the standard account, introducing foreign nations as emerging lawmakers that compete with American states in the increasingly globalized market for corporate law. In recent decades, entrepreneurial foreign nations in offshore islands have used permissive corporate governance rules and specialized business courts to attract publicly traded American corporations. Aided in part by a select group of private sector …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

The Oecd Multilateral Tax Instrument: A Model For Reforming The International Investment Regime?, Wolfgang Alschner

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The international tax and investment regimes display striking similarities. They are both based on thousands of bilateral treaties that follow similar principles but differ in fine print. They each facilitate the free flow of international capital by respectively disciplining fiscal and regulatory host state conduct. Finally, they share common historical foundations and have experienced similar periods of rapid diffusion and deep contestation. Yet, while the international tax regime recently accomplished a sweeping reform to solve a decades-old legitimacy crisis, the investment regime is still grappling with its own legitimacy crisis and reform. In 2018, the multilateral tax instrument (MLI) entered …

Washington’S 'Cutting-Edge' Solution To Combat Sales Tax Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Robert Chicoine, Andrew Leahey, Sunder Gee

Faculty Scholarship

Globally, consumption tax compliance (value added tax and retail sales tax) has gone digital – digital invoices are becoming mandatory, centralized monitoring of transactions and tax payments are increasingly common, and artificial intelligence is assessing fraud risks in real-time. When tax is collected, it is increasingly being remitted in near-real-time. This is the trajectory for the modern retail sales tax (RST) imposed by most states in the US. While this may appear to be revolutionary to the average American, it is a well-worn path among global nations using the value added tax (VAT). The RST will eventually be following suit. …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S ‘Netflix Tax’ (Part 4), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This is the fourth paper examining the recent amendments to the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax (GST); amendments that are collectively known as the Netflix Tax. These papers assess the effectiveness of the Netflix provisions, and how they could be enhanced if New Zealand adopted the technology and vision of Fiji’s VAT Monitoring System (VMS). The Netflix provisions were effective, July 1, 2017.

This final paper considers: (a) the treatment of domestic agents when they are used by remote service providers to facilitate sales to New Zealand customers; (b) how New Zealand intends to respond to resident consumers who …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' Part 3 (Electronic Marketplaces), Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Chang Che

Faculty Scholarship

This is the third paper examining the recent amendments to the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax (GST) that are commonly known as the Netflix Tax. A fourth paper will follow.

The importance and complexity of dealing with electronic marketplaces has made an independent paper on electronic marketplaces necessary. Taken together this set of four papers assess the effectiveness of the Netflix provisions, and how they can be enhanced by adopting the technology and vision of Fiji’s VAT Monitoring System (VMS). The Netflix provisions were effective, July 1, 2017.

This paper considers rules that allocate the responsibility for collecting, reporting …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' (Part 2), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This is the second in a four-part series addressing VAT/GST avoidance schemes involving remote sales of services. These schemes have been growing in importance. The IMF reports that the services component of cross-border trade has been on the rise for fifty-years or more, making the Internet a serious threat to revenue. Technology has accelerated tax avoidance.

Statutory draftsmen in New Zealand have looked at this problem directly with what has been called the Netflix Tax. Technologist in Fiji have been struggling with similar problems and have developed technology-based security systems that would seem to address remote sales of services more …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' (Part 1), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade the VAT in the South Pacific has been changing. More change is coming. Change is needed in both the larger economies (Australia and New Zealand) and the smaller ones (the Pacific Island Countries or PICs). The changes we see currently are propelled by cross-border remote sales of services and low-value goods.

The government response in the South Pacific is not uniform. The larger economies have relied on statutory remedies; the smaller economies are turning to technology. The larger economies are crafting complex, extra-territorial compliance provisions targeting remote sellers. The smaller economies are mandating secure digital invoices, …

Socio-Economic Development In Africa: Tax Reform As A Tool For Fostering The Objectives Of The Afcfta, Oladiwura Ayeyemi Eyitayo-Oyesode

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement is aimed at transforming the economic landscape of the African continent. The agreement contains lofty objectives set up to enhance trade integration and promote the free flow of capital and investments. The agreement follows the EU model on market integration and signatories have committed to take measures to reduce the cost of doing business and create a conducive environment for private sector development in Africa. The agreement is not just aimed at eliminating barriers to trade, but is also focused on ensuring sustainable, inclusive social and economic development and structural transformation of the …

International Taxation In An Era Of Digital Disruption: Analyzing The Current Debate, Itai Grinberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The “taxation of the digital economy” is currently at the top of the global international tax policymaking agenda. A core claim some European governments are advancing is that user data or user participation in the digital economy justifies a gross tax on digital receipts, new profit attribution criteria, or a special formulary apportionment factor in a future formulary regime targeted specifically at the “digital economy.” Just a couple years ago the OECD undertook an evaluation of whether the digital economy can (or should) be “ring-fenced” as part of the BEPS project, and concluded that it neither can be nor should …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Review Of Double Taxation And The League Of Nations, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Reviews

Should we continue adapting the OECD Model to address tax challenges arising from digitalization of the economy or has the time come for radical reform? Sunita Jogarajan asked that question in her last study of the League of Nations' work on double taxation in the 1920s. The historical analysis provided in her book seems to suggest that the international tax regime will continue to inevitably evolve and the OECD Model can adapt. Her extensive archival research, conducted at the League of Nations Archives, the United Kingdom National Archives (London) and the Seligman Archives, Columbia University (New York), clearly demonstrates that …

Is American Multinational Enterprises’ Honeymoon With The European Union Over?An Analysis Of The European Commission’S Investigations Into American Multinational Enterprises’ Tax Deals With Ireland, Luxembourg And The Netherlands, Luyang Liu

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Vatcoin Solution To Mtic Fraud: Past Efforts, Present Technology, And The Eu’S 2017 Proposal, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi, Mike Cheetham, Camille Tirand

Faculty Scholarship

On October 4, 2017, in an effort to recover some of the VAT lost annually, the European Commission proposed “far-reaching reforms.” The immediate target is a €50 billion slice of an estimated €150 billion overall annual loss. In its proposal the Commission is looking only at Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud in goods.

Goods (alone) are targeted. If we have learned anything about MTIC fraud since January 1, 1993, it is that fraudsters engaged in this activity are exceptionally agile. MTIC frauds migrate and mutate on command. For example, MTIC fraud in cell phones quickly migrated to computer chips in …

User Participation In Value Creation, Itai Grinberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article examines HM Treasury’s proposal to account for the active participation of users in value creation in certain digital platforms. The first key question is whether there is any reason to believe, as HM Treasury suggests, that users only meaningfully or actively contribute to value creation in the context of certain digital platforms. The article accordingly explores the factors HM Treasury sets out for the attribution of income to active user participation, including features such as network effects, multisided business models, and a lack of physical presence in the jurisdiction of the user. It concludes that if a user …

A Vatcoin Proposal Following On The 2017 Eu Vat Proposals - Mtic, Vatcoin, And Blockchain, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi, Michael Cheetham, Camille Tirand

Faculty Scholarship

The following proposal for an EU VATCoin was presented at the Digital Tax Transformations Conference, December 18 & 19, 2017 in Vienna, Austria at WU Global Tax Policy Center (WU GTPC) at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law of Vienna University of Business and Economics.

The EU Commission has proposed “far-reaching reforms” to solve some of the fraud in the EU VAT. It hopes to capture €50 billion lost annually to MTIC fraud in goods. It hopes to do this without addressing tradable services, a MTIC mutation which by all accounts is running strong.

Fortunately, the Commission is …

A Destination-Based Cash Flow Tax Can Be Structured To Comply With World Trade Organization Rules, Itai Grinberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper briefly outlines alternative approaches to enacting a destination-based cash flow tax that are more clearly compatible with the World Trade Organization rules than the approach that has previously been described in the literature. The first structural alternative involves expanding the universe of businesses subject to the tax by clearly defining both the base of the new U.S. business tax and its tax nexus requirement as domestic consumption, and thereafter treating foreign importers and other sellers equivalently, rather than imposing a deduction disallowance or an import tax. The second alternative involves adopting a business activities tax, and then enacting …

Irs's Cp-2000 E-Mail Scams - Never In Dubai - Common In Canada & The Uk, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On September 22, 2016 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its Security Summit partners issued an alert to taxpayers and tax professionals to be on guard against fake e-mails purporting to contain a tax bill related to the Affordable Care Act. Surprisingly, this e-mail scam works. It really should not.

Modern technology is facilitating many contemporary tax scams. In recent years the US has seen false (refund) return scams, phone scammers impersonation IRS agents, and now e-mail scams with fraudulent CP-2000 notices attached to a demand for payment. The same phone and e-mail frauds have appeared in both Canada and …

Blockchain, Bitcoin, And Vat In The Gcc: The Missing Trader Example, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Blockchain is coming to tax administration and will cause fundamental change. This article considers the potential for blockchain technology as it applies to the introduction of a value added tax in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Blockchain technology disrupts centralized ledgers. Blockchain improves efficiency, security and transparency. Perhaps no centralized ledger system presents more challenges than that of the modern tax administration. The central data storage system of a modern tax authority contains all return, payment, and audit activity for all taxpayers arranged tax-by-tax for three years or longer periods of time.

It is likely that blockchain will come first to …

Trump & Vat: Nafta, Trade Barriers, And Retaliatory Tariffs, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

During the first presidential debate President-elect Donald J. Trump argued that the value added tax (VAT) operated as a trade barrier to American business everywhere. He particularly pointed to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mexico was a special concern. China was also a concern, but in this instance Trump was troubled both by China’s VAT and by China’s alleged currency manipulation.

This paper can only consider the VAT aspect of Trump’s trade policy. There appears to be some confusion about the operation of the VAT, particularly the border adjustment mechanism, and how US tariffs could “level the playing …

Taking The First Bite: Who Should Tax Apple's $187 Billion In Ireland, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, University Of Michigan Law School

Articles

On December 19, 2016, the European Commission (hereinafter “Commission”) published its final decision in the Apple State aid case. The Commission concluded that two tax rulings granted in 1991 and 2007 on the allocation of profits to the Irish branches of Apple Sales International (“ASI”) and Apple Operations Europe (“AOE”) amounted to illegal state aid, and ordered Ireland to immediately recover this aid from Apple. The key issue in the Apple decision is where Apple’s foreign income ($187 billion, as of 2016) should be regarded as being generated. In the authors’ opinion, there is almost no basis for any argument …

How Countries Should Share Tax Information, Arthur J. Cockfield

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Offshore tax evasion, international money laundering, and aggressive international tax planning significantly reduce government revenues. In particular, for some low-income countries the amount of capital flight (where elites move and hide monies offshore in tax havens) exceeds foreign aid. Governments struggle to enforce their tax laws to constrain these actions, and they are inhibited by a lack of information concerning international capital flows. The main international policy response to these developments has been to promote global financial transparency through heightened cross-border exchanges of tax information. The Article examines elements of optimal cross-border tax information exchange laws and policies by focusing …

Country By Country Reporting And Corporate Privacy: Some Unanswered Questions, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

Corporate privacy is an oxymoron. Individuals have a right to privacy, which the Supreme Court has recognized at least since Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). Warren and Brandeis’ famous defense of the right to privacy (1890) clearly applied only to individuals, because only individuals have the kind of feelings that are affected by invasions of privacy. Corporations are legal entities, and the concept of privacy does not apply to them, as the Supreme Court held in 1906. Thus, any objection to making corporate tax returns public cannot rest on the right to privacy. In fact, corporate returns were made public in …

Gcc Vat: The Intra-Gulf Trade Problem, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

It seems reasonably clear that by January 1, 2018 events will be set in motion for the adoption of a community-wide 5% value added tax (VAT) in the six Member States of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

The GCC’s Framework VAT document is expected to be published by the end of October 2016. One of the clearest, consistently placed observations is that the Arabian VATs will be destination-based and modeled on a European credit-invoice design. Intra-Gulf business-to-business (B2B) transactions will be effectively zero-rated by the supplier, and the buyer’s VAT will be directed to the destination jurisdiction. It is not …

Book Review: International Tax Planning. By Barry Spitz. London, England: Butterworth & Co. Ltd., 1972. Pp. Xxiii, 159. $12.15 (U.S.)., Donald O. Clark

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

A Constructive U.S. Counter To Eu State Aid Cases, Itai Grinberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

U.S. Treasury officials and members of Congress from both parties have expressed concern that the European Commission’s current state aid investigations are disproportionately targeting U.S.-based multinational enterprises. At the same time, a Treasury official recently suggested in congressional testimony that there are limits to what Treasury can do beyond strongly expressing its concerns to the commission. In that testimony, Treasury’s representative hinted at two specific pressure points: whether the state aid investigations could undermine U.S. tax treaties with EU member states; and whether any assessments paid by the foreign subsidiaries of U.S. MNEs as a result of state aid investigations …

Reconsidering The Tax Treaty, Steven A. Dean, Rebecca M. Kysar

Faculty Scholarship

For nearly one hundred years, the international tax regime steadfastly pursued a single nemesis, double taxation. States armed themselves against this common enemy with their weapon of choice, the double tax treaty. Nearly uniform in language and approach, the treaties proliferated to more than three thousand in number,¹ resulting in a secure arrangement between and among states and taxpayers.

Yet in recent years, states have had to expand the war to multiple fronts in the face of globalization, technological changes, evolving taxpayer abuses, and shifts in both domestic and international political pressures. For instance, a growing recognition that the …

Trade Act Of 1974-Countervailing Duties-Nonexcessive Remission Of Foreign Excise Tax On Products Imported Into The United States Does Not Constitute A Bounty Or Grant Requiring The Levy Of Countervailing Duties, Garry Seltzer

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.