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...

If “tax avoidance” means “contriving legal transactions that reduce tax in ways that are contrary to legislative policy”, then “evasion” is illegal reduction and “mitigation” is unexceptionable reduction. Apparently, tax avoidance may occur endogenously, within the existing...

“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...

The inheritance tax system in New Zealand revolves around an estate duty, levied on deceased estates and a gift duty on inter vivos gifts. There is no capital gains tax. The Estate and Gift Duties Act 1968 does not contain any general anti-avoidance provisions. Avoidance of duty is common....