As part of systems of tax law, general anti-avoidance rules frustrate transactions that contrive to avoid tax. Avoidance transactions adhere to the strict letter of the law while flouting or exploiting its policy. Statutory general anti-avoidance rules are found in many countries in Europe and...

The English version of this paper can be found at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1473612 The article compares the general anti-avoidance rule of income tax law with the civil law doctrine of abuse of law (Rechtsmissbrauch, abus de droit) in eight jurisdictions: Germany, Croatia, New Zealand,...

The trust is the most useful device that New Zealand offers to non-residents in the field of international tax planning. So long as settlors, beneficiaries, and income are all foreign the trust is unlikely to attract New Zealand tax. The residence of the trustee has no effect on the tax benefits...

“Ectopia” is a label given here to a feature of tax law that distinguishes it from most other forms of law. Income tax law is dislocated from the facts to which it relates. This dislocation leaves a gap, or “ectopia” between tax laws and the economic facts of the transactions or...

Sections 226 to 233 of the New Zealand Income Tax Act 1976 contain a special regime for the taxation of trusts. Income that is distributed by the trustee is taxed in the hands of the beneficiary, and income that is accumulate is taxed in the hands of the trustee. The regime contains a number of...

This article, which is based on the inaugral address given at the IBFD Tax Lecture Series in Beijing, China, examines the basic foundations and nature of income tax law before going on to offer a unifying theory of taxation law. Income tax law is notoriously complex for a range of reasons. One...

A report on a conference organised jointly by the Institute of Policy Studies, Wellington, the Asian Pacific Tax and Investment Centre, Singapore, and the Australian Tax Research Foundation, Sydney. The purpose was to study judicial and legislative anti-avoidance measures and treaty policies in...

The appellants in Lowe v Commissioner of Inland Revenue (1981) 1 NZLR 326 subdivided their land and sold it for a profit. The Commissioner applied section 67(4)(e) of the Income Tax Act 1976, which provides that assessable income of the taxpayer shall be deemed to include all profits or gains...

The trading stock of a business comprises raw materials and goods purchased or produced for sale. The true profit of a business is not merely the excess of sales over expenses for the year. From this figure one must subtract the value of opening trading stock, and to it add the value of closing...

In Commissioner of Inland Revenue v Smythe [1981] 1 NZLR 673 the Court of Appeal considered whether a lump sum payment provided in lieu of long service leave that had not been taken could be described as a bonus. Section 68 of the Income Tax Act 1976 provides concessional tax treatment for...