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Taxing internet companies: shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?

I’ve just been reading a paper from 2006 entitled “The Rise of the OECD as Informal World Tax Organisation“. I’m not going to comment on its analysis of the OECD itself; what is interesting is its analysis of the case study of the OECD’s project on e-Commerce, which took place over a decade ago. Its… Continue reading Taxing internet companies: shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?

Is there anything new in this tax avoidance debate?

Over the break I read Sol Picciotto’s seminal International Business Taxation, published in 1992. It’s not hard to see why this book has acquired the status – in academia at least – of definitive account of the international tax system and its foundation. And it is interesting to see that the current outcry over transfer… Continue reading Is there anything new in this tax avoidance debate?

How Venezuela blacklisted itself as a tax haven

As you might have seen, the European Commission is proposing that EU Member States create a blacklist of countries that do not “apply minimum standards of good governance in tax matters. These countries would be subject to sanctions from EU member states, up to and including the termination of double tax treaties.The blacklisting approach is… Continue reading How Venezuela blacklisted itself as a tax haven

The second worst tax system imaginable

I came across the following quote from Professor Richard Doernberg, author, among other things, of International Taxation in a Nutshell: One might describe the current international tax system as the second worst imaginable – the worst system being whatever would replace the current system. Inertia has its advantages. Discuss.