Taxation-Transnational Commons^™

False Idols In The Early History Of International Taxation, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

A careful reading of recent scholarship on the early history of international taxation, especially on the League of Nations ’ work on ‘ double taxation ’ , ought to have dislodged many myths about this history. But more often than not, such scholarship is taken to offer mere details without altering our fundamental understanding. This chapter suggests that this reception refl ects a longstanding pattern in discourses about international taxation: participants perpetuate or cling onto narratives that are easily seen to be false. The chapter exposes this pattern by summarising evidence for four rarely-acknowledged conclusions about the League ’ s …

Taxing Ai, Assaf Harpaz

Scholarly Works

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform the distribution and sources of income, with some experts predicting widespread job displacement. Even under optimistic projections, AI is expected to exacerbate wealth inequality, given that the technology’s ownership and immense value are concentrated within a subset of Big Tech companies and AI startups. These outcomes will have far-reaching impacts on the federal tax system, which heavily relies on taxing individual labor income and payroll, rather than capital or consumption.

This Article argues that AI threatens to disrupt the tax system’s ability to fulfill its fundamental goals of raising revenue, redistributing income, and …

Was The Early U.S. Tax Treaty Program A One-Man Show?, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

This article examines the origins of the U.S. tax treaty program from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s. Drawing on congressional records and previously unexamined Treasury and State Department archives, it argues that the program was shaped to an extraordinary degree by a single Bureau of Internal Revenue official, Eldon P. King. Far from merely administering treaty policy, King effectively created and directed it: he developed legal justifications for treaty negotiations, selected negotiating partners, led negotiations, managed relations with the State Department, and helped secure Senate acceptance of the resulting agreements. The article shows how King transformed the limited treaty-related …

How The U.S. Constitution Shapes International Tax Law: Instrument Choice In Tax Agreements, Noam Noked, Young Ran (Christine) Kim, Reuven Avi-Yonah

Articles

The U.S. Constitution’s Treaty Clause, which requires Senate approval by a two-thirds vote for treaties, has significantly influenced the development of international tax law. This Article examines the implications of Senate supermajority requirements on bilateral and multilateral tax treaties and agreements, alternative instruments, relevant international tax standards, and global tax governance.

Historically, tax treaties have been approved exclusively as Article II treaties requiring Senate approval. The difficulty of entering into treaties with the United States has influenced the instrument choice and design of U.S. and international tax standards. To address this challenge, several U.S. and international tax reforms have employed …

Dividend Distribution Tax: More Than Meets The Eye - A Critical Analysis Of Polycab India Ltd. V. Assistant Commissioner Of Income-Tax, Ashrita Prasad Kotha

Articles

The case emanates from the dividend distribution tax (DDT) paid by Polycab on shares held by International Finance Corporation (IFC), one of its shareholders. IFC was set up by an international agreement to support the private sector in developing countries and was granted tax immunity on its income and transactions under the founding multilateral treaty and supporting domestic law. Polycab sought refund of DDT owing to IFC's immunity. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) ruled in favour of Polycab by considering dividend distribution within the immunity clause and reading in an exemption into the income tax legislation. Significantly, the DDT …