Taxation-Transnational Commons^™

Why Y? Reflections On The Baucus Proposal, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The international tax reform proposal introduced by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., on November 19 contains several significant innovations that promise to define the terms of the debate for the foreseeable political future. (Prior coverage: Tax Notes Int’l, Nov. 25, 2013, p. 691.) It is therefore worth examining in detail even if it seems unlikely that progress toward meaningful reform can be achieved very soon.

Transfer Pricing: Un Guidelines — Brazil, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

The UN Practical Manual on Transfer Pricing for Developing Countries endeavors to provide “clearer guidance on the policy and administrative aspects of applying transfer pricing analysis.” Chapter 10 is particularly noteworthy. It sets out specific country practices. The rules in Brazil, China, India and South Africa are offered as templates for developing countries to follow.

This article considers the Brazilian contribution to Chapter 10. Although some writers believe that developing countries should adopt the Brazilian model this article suggests otherwise. Even though it is a theoretically simple system, some aspects of the Brazilian model consistently work to the fiscal disadvantage …

A Review Of International Business Tax Reform, Alexander M. Lewis

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are Cryptocurrencies 'Super' Tax Havens?, Omri Y. Marian

UF Law Faculty Publications

I describe the mechanisms by which cryptocurrencies — a subcategory of virtual currencies — could replace tax havens as the weapon-of-choice for tax-evaders. I argue such outcome is reasonably expected in the foreseeable future due to the contemporary convergence of two processes. The first process is the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies, of which Bitcoin is the most widely recognized example. The second process is the transformation of financial intermediaries to agents in the service of tax authorities, as part of the fight against offshore tax evasion. Financial institutions are faced with increased governmental pressure to deliver information about account holders, …

Dear Olympic Medalists, Thank You For Representing Our Country In The Olympics, But It's Time To Pay Up!, Dena Guttmann

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note argues that Olympic medalists should not be exempt from paying taxes on their cash prizes and that Senator Marco Rubio's proposed bill to eliminate taxes on these prizes should not be passed. The author contends that taxing Olympic cash prizes aligns with the principle of fairness in the U.S. tax system and that such exemptions would create inequities and loopholes. The analysis draws on comparisons with how other countries, such as Australia and Canada, tax Olympic prizes and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a uniform tax system.

Dice – Digital Invoice Customs Exchange, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Goran Todorov

Faculty Scholarship

A digital invoice customs exchange (DICE) is a technology-intensive tax compliance regimen for VAT/GST that utilizes invoice encryption to safeguard transactional data exchanged between seller and buyer in both domestic and import/export contexts while simultaneously notifying concerned jurisdictions of the transaction details.

DICE facilitates real-time VAT/GST enforcement as well as real-time commercial contract verification. It is a commercial invoice validation system that prevents tax evasion, most notably missing trader fraud and the non-declared import of trade-able services. DICE mimics the most effective administrative enforcement effort ever undertaken by the US IRS – the requirement to disclose the social security numbers …

Tackling Vat Fraud: Thirteen Ways Forward, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

In a May 31, 2006 Communication to the Council, the European Parliament, and the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Commission indicated a need to develop a coordinated strategy to improve the fight against fiscal fraud [COM (2006) 254 final]. Although the Communication considers fiscal fraud broadly (VAT, excise duties and direct taxes) the most pressing need seems to be for a VAT strategy that will effectively deal with carousel fraud.

This paper considers thirteen proposals that deal with missing trader intra-community fraud (MTIC):

(1) Common VAT (origin system) (2) Vanistendael’s foreign tax offices proposal (3) CVAT (Compensating VAT) …

The Contemporary Tax Journal Volume 3, No. 1 – Spring/Summer 2013

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

A Tax Haven In The Friendly Skies?, Yan Jiang

The Contemporary Tax Journal

No abstract provided.

Leveling The International Playing Field With The Marketplace Fairness Act, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Boryana Madzharova

Faculty Scholarship

Quill v. North Dakota unbalanced the American retail market with its preference for out-of-state over in-state sellers. The preference under Quill is that sellers without physical presence in a state cannot be compelled to collect the sales tax. If the buyer does not voluntarily remit the complementary use tax, the purchase is effectively tax-free. As a result, Quill is seen as facilitating tax avoidance and driving business to sellers who have no in-state nexus, notably e-businesses. Revenue losses are estimated in excess of $10 billion per year.

The reach of the Quill decision is international. Preferred sellers can reside just …

Apple Hearing: Observations From An Expert Witness, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a highly publicized hearing on May 21, 2013 to discuss Apple, Inc.’s international tax planning. As the first expert witness, I had a ring-side seat to the hearing and Apple’s international tax planning.

One purpose of this article is to clearly identify the two key tax policy issues that need to be addressed by policymakers both in the US and internationally. Because the discussion at the hearing was very U.S. centric, these two issues may have been lost in the rhetoric.

• Should the US and the rest of the world allow …

The Transfer Pricing Regs Need A Good Edit, Susan C. Morse

Pepperdine Law Review

The U.S. government has broad discretion to change the transfer pricing regulations as they apply to corporate multinationals, and these regulations need changing because they give too much leeway to taxpayers and will continue to serve an important function in the division of international tax jurisdiction regardless of the fate of pending reform proposals. Xilinx and Veritas illustrate that taxpayers whose transfer pricing is challenged can successfully defend themselves using arm’s length definitions in the government’s own regulations. U.S. tax administrators should write revised transfer pricing rules that afford taxpayers less contracting freedom. They should incrementally add formulaic elements to …

Putting The Reign Back In Sovereign, Allison Christians

Pepperdine Law Review

In its first term, the Obama administration enacted two pieces of legislation, each designed to protect an increasingly vulnerable income tax base, and each of which had the potential to set a new and unprecedented course for no less than the regulation of the global economy by the nation-state. The first, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), sought to end global tax evasion through tax havens. The second, a little-noticed two-page addendum to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), sought to end the contribution of American multinationals to corruption in governance by codifying the transparency …

Corporate And International Tax Reform: Proposals For The Second Obama Administration (And Beyond), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Pepperdine Law Review

The passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (“ATRA”) offers an opportune moment to consider proposals for corporate and international tax reform. With the debate over individual tax rates for the income and estate tax settled for the present, the President and Congress are free to consider broader reforms. This paper will attempt to raise some proposals for US corporate and international tax reform, beginning with long-term options (a 10 year horizon), continuing with the medium term (2-5 years) and concluding with short-term options (1-2 years). The main proposals are for the US to adopt a VAT and …

A Proposal For The Tax Treatment Of Interest In A Territorial System, Martin A. Sullivan

Pepperdine Law Review

To prevent negative effective tax rates in a territorial system, a multinational corporation’s deductions for interest expense attributable to foreign profits must be disallowed. To determine what portion of worldwide interest is foreign, it is commonly suggested that interest be allocated in proportion to assets. Because it would ease administrative problems and because it would reduce the incentives to shift profits through aggressive transfer pricing, allocation of interest in proportion to gross profits would be a superior approach. Also, contrary to the usual argument, the United States should not be reluctant to unilaterally adopt interest disallowance rules because it would …

The Globalization Of Corporate Tax Reform, Steven A. Bank

Pepperdine Law Review

With the growth of multinational corporations and its effect on corporate tax revenues, it is not surprising that international tax reform is a major part of President Obama’s Framework for Business Tax Reform as he begins his second term. Noticeably missing from this and other discussions of the major structural reform proposals, however, is any mention of the influence and importance of international corporate tax reform efforts. Although the concern over corporate tax evasion is especially pronounced in the U.S., the "decentering" of multinational corporations and corporate tax revenues is by no means an exclusively American problem. Around the world, …

Arguments For And Against Territoriality, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The tax on dividends from the active income of controlled foreign corporations meets the criteria for a bad tax: It raises little revenue but significantly affects taxpayer behavior in undesirable ways.

Territoriality: For And Against, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The tax on dividends from the active income of controlled foreign corporations meets the criteria for a bad tax: It raises little revenue but significantly affects taxpayer behavior in undesirable ways.

Property Taxation Of Foreign Goods And Enterprises - A Study In Inconsistency , James Dexter Clark

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Stopping Mtic — With A 3rd Invoicing Directive, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

A Third Invoicing Directive for the EU VAT seems to be a foregone conclusion. Corrections are needed in the Second Invoicing Directive. The hallmark of the next Directive will be its application of digital invoice technology. The Commission’s proposals will include adoption of tax-technology advances in invoice-control that are currently in use outside the EU. The next Invoicing Directive will require comprehensive e-invoicing, invoices that are digitally signed, and invoices that are fed into a system of relational databases that match transaction data across the Single Market. There will be real-time EU sales/purchases lists, and remote/real-time audit functionality.

This will …

Testimony Of J. Richard (Dick) Harvey, Jr. Before The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations May 21, 2013, J. Richard Harvey

Working Paper Series

Apple is an iconic US multinational corporation. In addition to demonstrating excellence in designing, building, and selling consumer products, Apple has been very successful at minimizing its global income tax burden. This expert testimony describes how Apple:

• allocates approximately two-thirds of its global income to Ireland, a country where only 4% of its employees and 1% of its customers are located,
• minimizes Irish tax by creating an Irish entity that is managed and controlled in the US, and
• avoids the US Subpart F rules.

More generally, the testimony illustrates techniques used by US MNCs to shift income …

Beating The Odds: Regulation Of Online Gaming Stateside And Abroad, Lisa Lester

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Tax Court Find Stars Transaction Lacks Economic Substance, Robert D. Probasco, Lee S. Meyercord

Faculty Scholarship

In Bank of New York Mellon Corp. v. Commissioner, the Tax Court found that a structured trust advantaged repackaged securities (“STARS”) transaction entered into by BNY Mellon lacked economic substance, and disallowed foreign tax credits of $199 million as well as transactional expenses of $8 million. BNY Mellon is the first test case to emerge from the IRS’s attempts to disallow tax benefits to several financial institutions that participated in the STARS transaction.

The STARS transaction is one of a number of different transactions that the IRS refers to as “foreign tax credit generators.” These transactions generally rely on inconsistent …

Should The Us Dictate World Tax Policy? Reflections On Ppl, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to grant certiorari in PPL offers it a unique opportunity to change the law regarding foreign tax credits that has significantly impeded the ability of other countries to engage in meaningful tax reform. In 1938 the Court said in dicta that to qualify for the FTC a tax had to be an income or excess profits tax (or a tax imposed in lieu thereof) under U.S. tax principles. This statement has led to an elaborate set of regulations defining what is an income tax, which has significantly hampered the ability of foreign countries to adopt …

Book Reviews, Charles O. Galvin

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Go Abroad, Young Man, Go Abroad: The Economic Recovery Tax Act Of 1981'S Changes In The Treatment Of Foreign Earned Income, Sheldon J. Fleming

Pepperdine Law Review

The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 made major revisions in the taxation of foreign earned income. The former tax provisions of sections 911 and 913failed in their purpose of equitably compensating individuals for the increased costs of working abroad, and have been replaced with a new section 911. The new law encourages Americans to go abroad by according them the most liberal tax benefits in over fifty years.

Tyrant-Killing Legislation And The Political Foundation Of Ancient Greek Democracy, David A. Teegarden

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Cost Of Progress: Enduring The Tax Deductibility Of International Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives, Wayne C. Wood

Global Business Law Review

Until the end of the twentieth century, the predominant view in America was that a corporation’s sole duty was to supply wealth to its shareholders. The idea that a corporation owes a broader duty to all of its stakeholders has gained ground based largely on the emerging international recognition of human rights norms. Increasingly American MNCs have opted to voluntarily create and implement CSR policies for moral, economic, and political reasons. While charitable donations made to exempt organizations are expressly deductible under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code, the same might not be true for a given CSR expenditure. …

Taxation Of Non-Residents On Business Profits, Jinyan Li

Articles & Book Chapters

The taxation of non-residents on business profits is important to developing countries in terms of raising revenue and encouraging foreign investment and trade. The source country has the legitimate right to tax business profits arising in its jurisdiction. Tax treaties impose no limits on such taxing rights, other than the obligation to tax net profits (instead of gross profits) in some situations, once the threshold for taxation is satisfied. As such, this source of tax revenue belongs to the source country. There is generally little expectation of the residence country of a non-resident taxpayer in sharing the tax revenue. It …

Doing The Math (And The English) In The Windfall Tax Cases, Stanley I. Langbein

Articles

No abstract provided.