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Articles 151 - 180 of 181

Full-Text Articles in Taxation-Transnational

Annex 3: Definition Of 'Tax' In Us Law, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2005

Annex 3: Definition Of 'Tax' In Us Law, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Book Chapters

Under US law, a tax is defined as a compulsory payment pursuant to the authority of a foreign country to levy taxes. While this definition is somewhat circular, it does require (i) a payment, (ii) that is not voluntary,(iii) to a foreign country, (iv) pursuant to its authority to levy taxes


All Of A Piece Throughout: The Four Ages Of U.S. International Taxation, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2005

All Of A Piece Throughout: The Four Ages Of U.S. International Taxation, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This paper divides up the history of U.S. international taxation into four periods, on the basis of what was the basic theoretical principle underlying the major legislative enactments made in each period. The first period lasted from the adoption of the Foreign Tax Credit in 1918 to the end of the Eisenhower Administration, and was dominated by the concept of the right to tax as flowing from benefits conferred by the taxing state. The second period lasted from 1960 until the end of the Carter Administration, and was dominated by the concept of capital export neutrality and an emphasis on …


The Pitfalls Of International Integration: A Comment On The Bush Proposal And Its Aftermath, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2005

The Pitfalls Of International Integration: A Comment On The Bush Proposal And Its Aftermath, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In January 2003, the Bush Administration proposed a new system for taxing corporate dividends, under which domestic shareholders in U.S. corporations would not be taxed on dividends they received, provided the corporation distributed these dividends out of after-tax earnings (the “Bush Proposal”). The Bush Proposal was introduced in Congress on February 27, 2003. Ultimately, however, Congress balked at enacting full-?edged dividend exemption. Instead, in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (“JGTRRA”) as enacted on May 28, 2003, a lower rate of 15% was adopted for dividends paid by domestic and certain foreign corporations,1 and the capital …


Closing The International Tax Gap, Joseph Guttentag, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2005

Closing The International Tax Gap, Joseph Guttentag, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Book Chapters

In July of 1999, the Justice Department entered into a plea bargain with one John M. Mathewson of San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Mathewson was accused of money laundering through the Guardian Bank and Trust Co. Ltd., a Cayman Islands bank. Mr. Mathewson was chairman and controlling shareholder of Guardian, and in that capacity had access to information on its depositors. In return for a reduced sentence, Mr. Mathewson turned over the names of the persons who had accounts at Guardian. The result was an eye-opener: The majority of the accounts were beneficially owned by U.S. citizens, and the reason they …


Risk, Rents, And Regressivity: Why The United States Needs Both An Income Tax And A Vat, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Dec 2004

Risk, Rents, And Regressivity: Why The United States Needs Both An Income Tax And A Vat, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In this article, Prof. Avi-Yonah argues that the legal academic debate about fundamental tax reform from 1974 onward has been skewed by the assumption that a consumption tax must replace the income tax. He addresses three of the major issue in recent writings on the income/consumption tax debate, and shows how none of the arguments in favor of the consumption tax are conclusive. Avi-Yonah also addresses the various consumption tax proposals that have been made and shows that they are all deficient in comparison with a VAT, as well as failing to achieve the goals of an income tax. Finally, …


International Tax As International Law, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Mar 2004

International Tax As International Law, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

The purpose of this article is to introduce to the international lawyer the somewhat different set of categories (e.g., residence and source rather than nationality and territoriality) employed by international tax lawyers, and explain the reasons for some of the differences. At the same time, it attempts to persuade practicing international tax lawyers and international tax academics that their field is indeed part of international law, and that it would help them to think of it this way. For example, knowledge of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties would help international tax lawyers in interpreting tax treaties, and …


Bridging The North/South Divide: International Redistribution And Tax Competition, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2004

Bridging The North/South Divide: International Redistribution And Tax Competition, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The most important social problem facing humanity at the beginning of the 21st century is the yawning divide in standards of living between the rich nations of the global North and the poor nations of the global South. The following table gives some indicia of the current gap in living standards. It shows that the majority of the population in most developing countries lives on less than two dollars a day; that in some developing countries, over a quarter of children aged 10-14 are employed in the work force; that mortality for children under five in developing countries can be …


International Tax Law As International Law, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2004

International Tax Law As International Law, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

Is international tax law part of international law? To an international lawyer, the question posed probably seems ridiculous. Of course international tax law is part of international law, just like tax treaties are treaties. But to an international tax lawyer, the question probably seems less obvious, because most international tax lawyers do not think of themselves primarily as international lawyers (public or private), but rather as tax lawyers who happen to deal with crossborder transactions. And indeed, once one delves into the details, it becomes clear that in some ways international tax law is different from "regular" international law. For …


Tax Competition: Harmful To Whom?, Michael Littlewood Jan 2004

Tax Competition: Harmful To Whom?, Michael Littlewood

Michigan Journal of International Law

The aim of this paper is to examine the theory that it is both desirable and feasible to prevent less-developed countries from operating preferential tax regimes (that is, offering tax incentives) as a means of attracting foreign investment.


For Haven's Sake: Reflections On Inversion Transactions, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jun 2002

For Haven's Sake: Reflections On Inversion Transactions, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article discusses “inversion” transactions, in which a publicly traded U.S. corporation becomes a subsidiary of a newly established tax haven parent corporation. In the last three years, an increasing number of these transactions have been taking place, undeterred by the shareholderlevel tax imposed by the IRS on them in 1994. The article first discusses the reasons for the increasing popularity of the transactions and the tax goals they aim at achieving (primarily avoiding subpart F and U.S. earnings stripping). The article then discusses the tax policy implications of these transactions. In the short run, the article suggests that the …


Foreign Direct Investment In Latin America Overview And Current Status, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Martin B. Tittle Jan 2002

Foreign Direct Investment In Latin America Overview And Current Status, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Martin B. Tittle

Other Publications

More firms than ever, and in more industries and countries, are expanding abroad through [foreign] direct investment [FDI]. Although FDI in 1980 was equivalent to only 5% of world GDP, by the end of the 1990's, that percentage had more than tripled to 17%. In 1993, the total US dollar value of world FDI was only US$ 200 billion, but by the year 2000, it had risen to US$ 1.3 thousand billion. Developing countries received around 25% of these inflows, mostly in the form of "greenfield" investments, where a new enterprise is essentially created from scratch.


(How) Should Trade Agreements Deal With Income Tax Issues?, Joel Slemrod, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2002

(How) Should Trade Agreements Deal With Income Tax Issues?, Joel Slemrod, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

What is the relationship between the international tax regime, as embodied in bilateral international tax treaties, and multilateral free trade agreements like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATr)?' Are their fundamental goals consistent or inconsistent? If they are inconsistent, should the tax treaties or the GATT be changed to remedy the inconsistency? If they are consistent, should the scope of either be expanded to include the other?


Tax Competition And E-Commerce, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Sep 2001

Tax Competition And E-Commerce, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In the last four years, there has been increasing concern by developed countries about the potential erosion of the corporate income tax base by "harmful tax competition" (in the European Union since 1997, in the OECD since 1998). However, the data on tax competition available to date present a mixed and somewhat puzzling picture. On the one hand, there is considerable evidence that effective corporate income tax rates in many countries have been declining, and that the worldwide effective tax rates on multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been going down as well. On the other hand, macroeconomic data from developed countries …


The Uneasy Marriage Of Export Incentives And The Income Tax, Mihir A. Desai, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 2001

The Uneasy Marriage Of Export Incentives And The Income Tax, Mihir A. Desai, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

This paper investigates the economic effect of tax incentives for American exports. These incentives include a partial tax exemption for export profits (available by routing exports through foreign sales corporations) and the allocation of some export profits to foreign-source income for purposes of U.S. taxation. The analysis highlights three important aspects of these policies. First, official figures appear to understate dramatically the tax expenditures associated with some U.S. export incentives. Correctly measured, total export benefits provided through the income tax are equivalent to a 1-percent ad valorem subsidy. Second, the 1984 imposition of more rigorous requirements for obtaining export subsidies …


Treating Tax Issues Through Trade Regimes (Symposium: International Tax Policy In The New Millennium), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2001

Treating Tax Issues Through Trade Regimes (Symposium: International Tax Policy In The New Millennium), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

Professor Paul R. McDaniel has performed an extremely valuable service in clarifying the relationship between trade and tax law. In particular, he has done so by pointing out that, to a large extent, the two spheres do not overlap, much less clash in their objectives. This makes sense because, fundamentally, the goal of trade law is to facilitate trade, while the goal of tax law is to raise revenue. Thus, for example, an ideal tariff under trade law is set at zero, but an ideal tax under tax law is set at some positive rate. It therefore should not be …


Globalization And Tax Competition: Implications For Developing Countries, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2001

Globalization And Tax Competition: Implications For Developing Countries, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article analyses the effects of tax competition on developing countries. Since the 1980s, globalization and greater capital mobility have led many developing countries to adopt the policy of competing with one another to attract capital investment. One of the main forms taken by this competition has been the granting of tax holidays and other tax reductions to investing multinationals. This paper reviews the normative arguments for and against this type of tax competition, from a global perspective. It then examines these arguments in depth from the point of view of developing countries. The conclusion in general is that, since …


Globalization And Tax Competition: Implications For Developing Countries, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2001

Globalization And Tax Competition: Implications For Developing Countries, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The current age of globalization can be distinguished from the previous one (from 1870 to 1914) by the much higher mobility of capital than labor (in the previous age, before immigration restrictions, labor was at least as mobile as capital). This increased mobility has been the result of technological changes (the ability to move funds electronically), and the relaxation of exchange controls. The mobility of capital has led to tax competition, in which sovereign countries lower their tax rates on income earned by foreigners within their borders in order to attract both portfolio and direct investment. Tax competition, in turn, …


Tax, Trade And Harmful Tax Competition: Reflections On The Fsc Controversy, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Dec 2000

Tax, Trade And Harmful Tax Competition: Reflections On The Fsc Controversy, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article contrasts three approaches to dealing with the BEPS problem: adopting a unitary taxation regime, ending deferral, and adopting anti-base-erosion measures. It concludes that while the first approach is the best long-term option, the other two are more promising as immediate candidates for adoption in the context of U.S. tax reform and the OECD BEPS project.


Globalization, Tax Competition, And The Fiscal Crisis Of The Welfare State, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2000

Globalization, Tax Competition, And The Fiscal Crisis Of The Welfare State, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This Article examines the increased use of tax incentives as weapons in the international competition to attract investment. Professor Avi-Yonah argues that the establishment of tax havens allows large amounts of capital to go untaxed, depriving both developed and developing countries of revenue and forcing them to rely on forms of taxation less progressive than the income tax. He points to social insurance programs, many of which are already on uncertain courses as aging populations imperil their fiscal health, as likely to bear the brunt of the revenue loss that tax havens cause. Professor Avi-Yonah contends that both economic efficiency …


Commentary (Response To Article By H. David Rosenbloom), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2000

Commentary (Response To Article By H. David Rosenbloom), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

David Rosenbloom has delivered an important lecture on an important topic:' whether exploiting differences between the tax system of two different jurisdictions to minimize the taxes paid to either or both ("international tax arbitrage") is a problem, and if so, whether anything can be done about it in a world without a "world tax organization." As Rosenbloom states, international tax arbitrage is "the planning focus of the future,"2 and recently has been the focus of considerable discussion and debate (for example, upon the promulgation and subsequent withdrawal under fire of Notice 98-11).3 Rosenbloom's lecture is one of the first attempts …


On The Frontier Of Procedural Innovation: Advance Pricing Agreements And The Struggle To Allocate Income For Cross Border Taxation, Diane M. Ring Jan 2000

On The Frontier Of Procedural Innovation: Advance Pricing Agreements And The Struggle To Allocate Income For Cross Border Taxation, Diane M. Ring

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper outlines a recent procedural innovation in the tax area, the Advance Pricing Agreement Program ("APA" program), and evaluates its success. Such a case study can play a significant role in linking procedural innovation to the broader issues of administrative law theory and regulatory reform. For example, a working model such as the APA program, built on flexibility and creativity, may support administrative theories advocating discretion, flexibility, and experimentation. Conversely, some interest group theories of regulation (e.g., public choice theory), can prompt critical examination of reforms like APAs that exhibit limited openness to scrutiny. The APA program is an …


International Taxation Of Electronic Commerce, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 1997

International Taxation Of Electronic Commerce, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article submits proposals for taxing the digital economy on the basis of the benefits and single tax principles.


The Structure Of International Taxation: A Proposal For Simplification, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 1996

The Structure Of International Taxation: A Proposal For Simplification, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The article explains the structure of the international tax regime and offers suggestions for improvement.


The Effect Of The Statist-Political Approach To International Jurisdiction Of The Income Tax Regime- The Israeli Case, David Gliksberg Jan 1994

The Effect Of The Statist-Political Approach To International Jurisdiction Of The Income Tax Regime- The Israeli Case, David Gliksberg

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article proceeds from the general to the particular, by first presenting the principles of international jurisdiction of the international taxation regime and their connection with statist thinking, and then examining the rules of international jurisdiction of income taxation in Israel and the influence of the statist conception in Israel on the formation of those rules.


(Why) Should Nations Utilize Antidumping Measures?, Ross Denton Jan 1989

(Why) Should Nations Utilize Antidumping Measures?, Ross Denton

Michigan Journal of International Law

The purpose of this paper is to present arguments that may provide support for the continuation of the international antidumping regime, and in certain measure, for the continuation of national antidumping rules. It steers an often difficult course between advocating tighter controls on the use of antidumping actions as protectionist measures, and their use to prevent potentially harmful dumping. However, this paper does not attempt to define how to produce a rational antidumping-type system, but merely provides some standards for assessing whether that system is sensible.


Taxation And U.S. Multinational Investment, James R. Hines Jr. Jan 1988

Taxation And U.S. Multinational Investment, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

In 1985, nonbank U.S. multinational companies employed 24.5 million workers, had worldwide sales of almost $3.5 trillion, and net income of $150 billion on assets of $4.2 trillion. The foreign (non-U.S.) affiliates of these companies had 6.4 million employees, $900 billion of those sales, and $43 billion of net income, with assets of $838 billion. United States multinationals accounted for roughly three-quarters of total American merchandise exports in 1985 and half of total imports, with approximately 40 percent of each category arising from transfers within U.S. multinationals between American parent firms and their own foreign affiliates. And 1985 is widely …


Capital Neutrality And Coordinated Supervision: Lessons For International Securities Regulation From The Law Of International Taxation And Banking, Charles Thelen Plambeck Jan 1988

Capital Neutrality And Coordinated Supervision: Lessons For International Securities Regulation From The Law Of International Taxation And Banking, Charles Thelen Plambeck

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this article provides some background on the legal forces which have influenced globalization and internationalization of the world's securities markets. Part II focuses on the international tax law principle of capital neutrality. Fundamentally, the principle of capital neutrality requires that regulations should not unintentionally direct the movement of capital. Part II analyzes the bases and parameters of the principle of capital neutrality, the experiences of international taxation in applying the principle to a globalizing economy, and the possibilities for applying the principle to international securities regulation. Part III focuses on the international banking law principle of coordinated …


A New Export Policy: The Foreign Sales Corporation And State Unitary Taxation Of Foreign Source Income, Reed D. Rubinstein Jan 1984

A New Export Policy: The Foreign Sales Corporation And State Unitary Taxation Of Foreign Source Income, Reed D. Rubinstein

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this note will examine the structure of the FSC, and analyze its potential benefits in light of the Domestic International Sales Corporation (DISC) tax incentive. Part II discusses the use of the unitary tax as a disincentive to direct foreign investment by U.S. corporations. Finally, Part III outlines the new export policy based upon a combination of the FSC export incentive and state unitary taxation of foreign-source income. If implemented, this policy would increase export production and discourage direct foreign investment, thereby making a substantial contribution to U.S. economic well-being.


Taxation-Federal Tax Liens-Section 6321 Of The Internal Revenue Code As Basis For Injunction Binding Assets Of Foreign Branch Of American Bank, Gerald J. Laba Apr 1964

Taxation-Federal Tax Liens-Section 6321 Of The Internal Revenue Code As Basis For Injunction Binding Assets Of Foreign Branch Of American Bank, Gerald J. Laba

Michigan Law Review

The Commissioner of Internal Revenue issued jeopardy assessments against the taxpayer, Omar, S.A., a Uruguayan corporation. To avoid payment, Omar began to liquidate its American-held assets by transferring receipts out of the country. Pursuant to its statutory right, under section 6321 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, to impose a lien upon all property of a delinquent taxpayer, the United States brought suit against Omar and various New York banks in the domestic and foreign branches of which Omar's funds were deposited. The district court granted a preliminary injunction restraining certain of the banks from transferring any property whether …


Conflict Of Laws-Full Faith And Credit-Extraterritorial Enforcement Of State Revenue Law, Edwin A. Howe Jr. Dec 1962

Conflict Of Laws-Full Faith And Credit-Extraterritorial Enforcement Of State Revenue Law, Edwin A. Howe Jr.

Michigan Law Review

As the operator of a parking lot within plaintiffs city limits, defendant was subject to a ten percent city tax on his gross receipts. He failed to report the whole of his receipts on his monthly tax returns, and plaintiff, the City of Philadelphia, duly notified him of a five thousand dollar deficiency. Defendant had a statutory right to petition for administrative review of the assessment within sixty days, failing which the liability would become fixed and no longer subject to review or appeal. Rather than appealing, defendant removed himself and his assets to New York, thus preventing plaintiff from …