During the last decade the judiciary and policy makers in both Canada and Australia have struggled to define coherent principles pertaining to the deductibility of interest on borrowed funds. Neither jurisdiction has appeared to make reference to the experiences in the other notwithstanding that...

The Japanese income tax system was redesigned following World War II. As such it has features of the systems of both Europe and the United States, although in many respects it is quite unique. Whilst it arguably contributed to Japan's meteoric rise to the status of an economic superpower, little...

In an article published in this publication earlier this year (Issue 9, 6 March 2003, paragraph 115) the author outlined the cases and rulings featured in the ongoing issue as to the continued deductibility of interest post business cessation. The author reflected on the ATO's likely response to...

Countries around the globe are currently struggling with the seemingly conflicting goals of maintaining the integrity of their company/shareholder tax regime whilst not presenting a disincentive to both inward and outward investment. In this regard, the standard adopted by most developed...

Currently there is an international trend towards a lowering of effective tax rates. Low tax regimes have been driven by globalisation as countries have become more aggressive in competing for foreign investment. Often countries resort to providing tax concessions that might encourage such...

By broadly interpreting the general anti-avoidance rule in Part IVA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, the High Court, in FCT v Spotless Services Ltd 1996 ATC 5201, has exposed the inadequacies of the provision. The rejection of the "commercial transaction exception" has generated...

The traditional approach to resolving tax disputes adopted by the Judiciary is to look to the words of the legislation to identify Parliament's intention. However this approach is founded on the fallacy that words have a “correct” meaning which is there for the Judiciary to discover.In fact,...