The oldest GAAR in the world is a somewhat crude instrument that has been honed to a very sharp edge by the New Zealand Supreme Court. The GAAR in New Zealand is classic evidence that, at least in New Zealand, such broadly worded anti-avoidance provisions are ultimately judge-made law. This is...

For any country, working out the most appropriate method of taxing its residents' interests in foreign investment funds poses difficult challenges of regime design. Unlike some problems of tax design, the optimum structure of a foreign investment fund regime is likely to vary with the size of...

In the latter half of the 1980s the tax climate in Australia and New Zealand changed markedly. While throughout the world there were major tax reforms, the changes in Australasia were more fundamental, and both structural and radical. Major changes that were adopted in one or both of the two...

Die Kraftfahrzeugsteuer (KraftSt) ist im Jahr 1906 als sog. "Luxusaufwandsteuer" eingeführt worden. Die KraftSt belastete zunächst nur "das Halten von Personenkraftwagen" - ab 1922 wurde die Befreiung für den gewerbsmäßigen Verkehr aufgehoben. In einem weiteren Versuch der steuerrechtlichen...

The article deals with the cost of tax compliance which arises for taxpayers from tax complexity and the constant changes in tax legislation. A socially responsible institution for the fiscal aggression is the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, as its powers and...

Die Kraftfahrzeugsteuer (KraftSt) ist im Jahr 1906 als sog. "Luxusaufwandsteuer" eingeführt worden. Die KraftSt belastete zunächst nur "das Halten von Personenkraftwagen" - ab 1922 wurde die Befreiung für den gewerbsmäßigen Verkehr aufgehoben. In einem weiteren Versuch der steuerrechtlichen...

This paper sets out the text and translations of over sixty of the world's general anti-avoidance rules. General anti-avoidance rules are found in taxation statutes. Known as “GAARs”, they are perhaps the most intractable of all statutory provisions, challenging alike to policy-makers,...

From an economic point of view, legal considerations apart, tax avoidance, tax evasion and tax flight have similar effects, namely a reduction of revenue yields, and are based on the same desire to reduce the tax burden. Due to legal differences and moral concerns it is, however, likely that...