New Zealand is currently the only member country of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) without a formal, comprehensive regime in place for taxing the capital gains made by its personal and corporate residents. Being the outlier is insufficient justification for...

In an era in which countries seem to be retreating, sometimes at a rapid pace, toward source-based taxation, the importance of a sharp distinction between resident and nonresident companies becomes less obvious. In this context, the proposal by the Australian government in its 2020 budget to...

In 2008 the Australian government announced that a major tax review would be undertaken (the Henry Review) to consider the future of the Australian tax system in the light of the challenges of the 21st century. That review is due to be completed by the end of 2009. There have been a large number...

Earlier this year, the Australian Government finally released the findings of the tax review panel looking at “Australia’s Future Tax System”, known colloquially (and referred to in this note) as the “Henry Report” after the chair of the review panel, Ken Henry. The report,...

In contrast to the VAT regime, income taxation in the European Union (EU) remains almost fully non-harmonised. A number of factors suggest the possibility that harmonisation of direct taxes in the EU may not be as far-fetched as many believe. The first is the compulsion of mounting economic and...

In the early decades of the 20th century, the income tax emerged as the preferred broad-based tax on gains, fending off a strong assault from the closest alternative, the expenditure tax. The income tax adopted in all western economies turned out to be far different from the theoretical neutral...

This chapter examines the historical development of the formulary apportionment approach in key jurisdictions.From the time income taxes were first widely enacted, tax designers have been concerned with the question of how to allocate profits in transactions that incorporated labour, capital or...

In the last quarter of the 20th century, the concept of a tax expenditure budget emerged as the primary mode of analysis of concessions in tax laws in advanced economies. Under this approach, the fiscal cost of concessions is calculated and lost revenue is treated as the equivalent of revenue...

Tim Edgar's passing in December 2016 dealt a severe blow to tax scholarship in Canada and globally, not to mention being a sad loss for this journal, to which he was a contributor for over three decades. Tim's books, journal articles, and book chapters spanned a wide spectrum of tax policy...

This article compares VAT compliance costs in OECD countries with those in China, a significant competitor and trading partner of most OECD countries. The long and sometimes complex evolution of China’s turnover tax system into a more modern VAT contributed to the compliance burden but recent...