‘Tax avoidance is a taxpayer's course of action in line with the letter but contrary to the spirit of the law'. Definitions phrased along these lines can be found in many policy statements and legal provisions. They are common, but nonetheless problematic. It is the ‘spirit of the law' part...

In recent times mainstream media has put the spotlight on corporate tax affairs. The underlying concern is double non-taxation: that is, that some multinationals are not paying tax on their business profits anywhere in the world – particularly technology companies and firms with high levels of...

The Louisiana Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether someone could form an out-of-state LLC for no other purpose than to avoid the sales tax imposed on the purchase of vehicles. Plaintiff Roger Thomas freely admitted that he incorporated Angel Rocks, LLC under the laws of the State of...

The judgment of the CJEU in the Welmory case attracts particular attention. This is due to the fact that the CJEU had to apply the concept of fixed establishment, which originated from the context of traditional economy, for the first time to the digital economy.In this article the authors...

This article reviews academic and government studies that assess the magnitude of Canadian offshore tax evasion, as well as what tax-haven data leaks such as the Panama Papers have told us. This evidence, along with Canada's historically poor performance in auditing, investigating, and...

This essay argues that state governments' current focus on getting vendors to collect their sales and use taxes is insufficient, especially in regard to e-commerce transactions. If state governments want their use taxes to serve as effective and lawful backstops to their sales taxes—as state...

Tarun Jain sets forth an extensive survey and analysis of the Indian tax law as it relates to tax avoidance, considering both the judicial and legislative approaches to these issues. The author first describes the central role of Indian tax jurisprudence in developing and implementing an anti...

Taxpayers who hide assets abroad to evade taxes present a serious enforcement challenge for the United States. In response, the United States has developed a family of initiatives that punish and rehabilitate non-compliant taxpayers, raise revenues, and require widespread reporting of offshore...

Corporate tax avoidance is an act aiming at reducing tax amount liable to the government, which is expected to raise firm value. However, agency theory postulates that opportunistic managers can lower tax liabilities through the arrangement of complex transactions, enabling them to shirk or...

The United States Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has repeatedly taken the position that, because the IRS does not ask taxpayers to identify their race or ethnicity on submitted tax returns, IRS enforcement actions are not affected by taxpayers' race or ethnicity. This claim, which I call...