A recent NY Times headline summarizes one of the biggest economic impacts of the current pandemic: “Big Tech Could Emerge From Coronavirus Crisis Stronger Than Ever.” At a time when most American citizens and businesses suffer catastrophic economic damage from the Coronavirus Recession, some...

US international tax law is commonly conceived as developed in the US and influencing the development of other countries' international tax law. This paper will argue that in the case of the TCJA, the US legislation was heavily influenced by the OECD BEPS project, and that the continuing OECD...

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...

On June 21, 2018, the US Supreme Court decided South Dakota vs. Wayfair. It overruled its previous precedents to hold that US states can require remote sellers to collect sales tax when they ship items to in-state purchasers. This decision has some implications for the EU's current struggle with...

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,...

Following the financial crisis and ensuing austerity, politicians discovered the problem of tax avoidance. In response, the OECD and G20 launched the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project in 2013, and this has in October, 2015 culminated with the release of a series of action steps...

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...