A Comparative Look at Regulation of Corporate Tax Avoidance

The proliferation of tax avoidance schemes in recent years signals the global dimensions of a problem presenting a serious challenge to the effective administration of tax laws. Tax avoidance involves unacceptable manipulation of the law to obtain a tax advantage in a manner unintended by the legislature. These transactions support wasteful behavior in which corporations enter into elaborate, circuitous transactions solely to minimize tax liability. They frustrate the ability of governments to collect sufficient revenue to provide essential public goods and services and infrastructure. Moreover, unchecked tax avoidance threatens to establish an elite class of taxpayers that can avoid obligations, while other taxpayers lacking sophisticated tax advisors are left to shoulder more than their fair share of the tax burden. Increasingly, governments have been forced to address tax avoidance through a variety of legislative responses, including general anti-avoidance rules (GAARs), targeted anti-avoidance rules (TAARs), disclosure regimes and special penalty provisions. Informal cooperation has resulted in parallel developments across borders. This volume surveys the anti-avoidance laws of more than 20 countries, including Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. It contains an introductory chapter that surveys the similarities and differences in the anti-avoidance regimes. It contains detailed chapters surveying the moral and legal dimensions of the problem presented in each of more than 20 countries.