If there is one thing that is relatively clear about the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that governments will need new sources of revenue to offset its costs and build a better social safety net. All over the world, governments are borrowing and spending at a pace not seen since World War II, and at...

The COVID-19 Pandemic already feels like a historical turning point akin to Word Wars I and II and the Great Depression. It may signal the end of the second period of globalization (1980-2020) and a change in the relative positions of the US and China. It could also lead in the US to significant...

If we want to narrow the North-South divide that threatens our world, some limits on tax competition are inevitable. The world faces a crucial choice in the 2020s. We can either continue retreating from globalization in favor of xenophobic nationalism, tariffs, immigration restrictions, and...

On July 24, 2018, the Ninth Circuit reversed the Tax Court decision in Altera Corp. v. Commissioner, 145 T.C. 91 (July 27, 2015), which had invalidated Treas. Reg. § 1.482- 7A(d)(2). The regulation requires taxpayer to include the cost of employee stock options in the pool of costs that must be...

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) signed into law by President Trump on 22 December 2017 contains multiple provisions that significantly impact Europe and the way European corporations are being taxed by the US. The US corporate tax rate is set to be 21% (reduced from 35%). Most importantly,...

Stanley Surrey (1910-1984) was arguably the most important tax scholar of his generation. Surrey was a rare combination of an academic (Berkeley and Harvard law schools, 1947-1961 and 1969-1981) and a government official (Tax Legislative Counsel, 1942-1947; Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy,...

On October 5, 2015, the OECD and G20 released the final BEPS package. It included the following new preamble to the OECD model tax treaty:(State A) and (State B)…Intending to conclude a Convention for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and on capital without...

If one listens to what Democratic and Republican candidates for president are saying on the campaign trail, the chances for tax reform in 2017 and beyond appear to be minimal. To pass tax reform, a bipartisan approach is essential, because even if we have a Republican president and Republican...

The new OECD Multilateral Instrument to amend tax treaties (MLI) is an important innovation in international law. Hitherto, international economic law was built primarily on bilateral treaties (e.g., tax treaties and BITs) or multilateral treaties (the WTO agreements). The problem is that in...