The politics of international tax – Page 10

Have the source and residence principles become redundant?

How typical. You only just get your head round a concept that you learn it’s no longer useful. So it seems to be with the principles of source and residence, based on a thought-provoking conference at the Oxford Centre for Business Taxation last week. To recap. The fundamental problem of international tax is to allocate… Continue reading Have the source and residence principles become redundant?

The new UN tax committee, and why it matters

Nominations are now open [pdf] for the next UN tax committee, whose term will run from July 2013 to June 2017. Although the UN committee is not as influential as the OECD, I think that its composition will be one of the most significant determinants of what happens in international tax over the next four… Continue reading The new UN tax committee, and why it matters

Cancelling tax treaties: a lesson from the 1970s

Mike Lewis at ActionAid had a blog yesterday about the problem posed by Zambia’s tax treaty with Ireland, following up on ActionAid Zambia’s call for the treaty to be renegotiated. But how easy would that be?

Do the BRICS present a challenge to the governance of international tax?

For campaigners, journalists and academics, the more interesting answer to the title question of this post would clearly be “yes”. It’s fascinating to think that we might be living through a paradigm shift in the politics of international tax, with the OECD struggling to maintain its relevance in the face of a more and more… Continue reading Do the BRICS present a challenge to the governance of international tax?

What did we learn from yesterday’s BEPS ‘tweetchat’?

140 character exchanges are unlikely to be the most revealing and nuanced on a topic as complex as the OECD’s ‘base erosion and profit shifting‘ project. But it was interesting that the OECD decided to reach out in this way, and also that questions did not just come from the usual suspects – the Institute… Continue reading What did we learn from yesterday’s BEPS ‘tweetchat’?

What will BEPS mean for developing countries?

“Researchers at the OECD are not free to think the unthinkable. They have to take account of the interests of each and every member state.” Or at least that’s what a recent paper in the Review of International Political Economy concludes from its interviews with civil servants. Yet thinking the unthinkable, or at least “thinking… Continue reading What will BEPS mean for developing countries?