In an age when cross-border business transactions are increasingly effected without the transference of physical products, revenue concerns of states have led to a multitude of tax disputes based on the concept of ‘nexus’. This important and timely book is the most authoritative to date to discuss one of the major tax topics of our time – the question of how taxing rights on income generated from cross-border activities in the digital age should be allocated among jurisdictions. Demonstrating in prodigious depth that it is the economic nexus of the tax entity or activity with the state, and not the physical nexus, which meets the jurisdictional requirement, the author – a leading authority on this area who is a Senior Commissioner of Income Tax and a Member of the Dispute Resolution Panel of the Government of India – addresses such dimensions of the subject as the following: whether a strict territorial nexus as a normative principle is ingrained in source rule jurisprudence; detailed scrutiny of such classical doctrines as benefit theory, neutrality theory, and internation equity; comparative critique of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and United Nation (UN) model tax treaties; whether international law and customary principles mandate a strict territorial link with the source state for the assumption of tax jurisdiction; whether the economic nexus-based tax jurisdiction and absence of a physical presence breach the constitutional doctrine of extraterritoriality or due process; and whether retrospective tax legislation breaches the principle of constitutional fairness. The book offers a politically informed analysis of the nexus principle and balances the dynamics of physical presence and economic nexus standards, based on an in-depth survey of the historical evolution of judicial pronouncements and international practices in this regard. Dr Singh’s book exposes an urgently needed missing link in the international source rule literature and takes a giant step towards solving the thorny question of appropriate tax apportionment. It sheds brilliant light on the policies states may adopt when signing new tax treaties, so that unintended results may be foreseen and avoided. Tax practitioners, taxation authorities, and academic researchers in the field of international tax law and policy will greatly appreciate the book’s forthright enhancement of the ability to defend challenges based on the nexus doctrine.

The number of international tax disputes is constantly increasing. This is a logical consequence of the pressure that is exerted on the global tax system by a rise in the number of internationally active and mobile taxpayers and tax competition between states on the one hand. On the other hand, the implementation of measures to tackle base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) by multinational enterprises already gives rise to further disputes and another increase of disputes might arise from the latest reforms of the international tax system, namely the Two-Pillar-Solution to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy. Against this background, the time is right for an institutionalised international tax dispute resolution mechanism that takes into account the interests of taxpayers, states, and the public and allows for a swift and binding resolution of international tax disputes ¬– exactly what this timely and thoroughgoing book offers. A comprehensive overview of existing international tax dispute resolution mechanisms – and an analysis of their procedural rules, advantages, and disadvantages – leads to a deeply informed proposal on how they can be further developed in a way that ensures greater fairness and equity for all stakeholders. Among the lines of conflict that characterise international tax disputes, the author sheds clear light on how improvements in the design of dispute resolution mechanisms may be found. This includes these questions: How should a dispute resolution mechanism be structured? Should there be a mandatory resolution if the states cannot agree? In which way should taxpayers participate in the procedure? Should agreements and decisions be published? Should there be an institution to administer the procedure? The book concludes with a draft convention that would implement the author’s suggestions. Tax lawyers and other tax professionals worldwide, as well as national tax authorities, will benefit greatly from this book. They will deepen their understanding of the variety of existing tax dispute resolution mechanisms and discover ways to strengthen them. Academics will find ample room to reflect on the key design elements of such mechanisms and how to improve them.

Series on International Taxation, Volume 82 The economic value of China’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market is exceeded only by that of the United States. However, China’s rapid and somewhat chaotic economic transformation has made the task of taxing M&A transactions in a consistent and prudent manner difficult, leading to a patchwork of fragmented rules that are hard to grasp not only for taxpayers but even for tax professionals and tax officials. Responding to this complex situation, this groundbreaking book explores in detail how income derived from M&A transactions is taxed in China. Using empirical studies in order to provide a first-hand understanding of the context in which the tax law operates, the book critically examines China’s income tax regime for M&A and, based upon this examination, sets out reform proposals. In six informative chapters of great practical relevance, the author thoroughly describes and explains the intersection of such aspects as the following: M&A transactions in the eyes of tax law; disparities between ordinary and special tax treatment; eligibility for special tax treatment; applying taxation principles such as neutrality and equity; continuity of interest doctrine; stock acquisition versus asset acquisition; and adjustment to tax basis. In addition to its empirical research, the analysis makes use of an examination of the rules and theories on taxing M&A in other jurisdictions such as Australia and the United States as part of its proposed blueprint for improving China’s M&A taxation. Drawing on commonly recognized taxation principles, this book definitively sets up the normative criteria for evaluating the income taxation of M&A and reveals the fundamental problems encountered by China’s current regime. Its comprehensive analysis of the Chinese income tax rules for M&A and detailed disclosure of how they are both divergent from and convergent with that of some other major economies will prove of immeasurable value to in-house counsel for multinational corporations, business enterprises with interests in China, taxation consultants, taxation academics, and taxation authorities worldwide.

Stakeholders in the international taxation community agree that existing dispute resolution processes are in serious need of improvement, and a global consensus must be achieved. This book offers a potential restructuring of the tax treaty dispute resolution system based on a comparative analysis of the dispute resolution mechanisms under tax treaties, as prescribed in the OECD and UN models, on the one hand, and the UN Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) on the other. This comparative study is the first of its kind and is premised on certain key geopolitical similarities that underpin the international tax regime (ITR) and the law of the sea regime while taking into consideration the differences in the institutional context of both regimes. The author proposes a new tax treaty dispute resolution system based on the LOSC system for resolving multilateral tax disputes, focusing on the following: mapping of the institutional arrangements that make up the dispute resolution mechanisms to understand how each system works; comparative analysis of the patterns of interaction and outcomes generated across the two dispute resolution systems to identify relevant aspects of the LOSC system that may be adapted in the ITR to improve tax treaty dispute resolution; and analysis of the inclusivity levels across the decision-making structures under each system to identify specific consensus-building techniques that may facilitate the implementation of the new proposed tax treaty dispute resolution system and also enhance international cooperation across the ITR. The proposed restructuring of the tax treaty dispute resolution system expands the existing mutual agreement procedure and forms a comprehensive legal framework that aims to achieve a more effective, predictable and equitable resolution of multilateral tax disputes in the 21st-century ITR by striking a balance between countries’ right to tax sovereignty and the rule of law. Just as the design of the dispute resolution system under the LOSC paved the way for universal consensus of the Convention among almost 160 countries, the author’s new tax treaty dispute resolution system also offers a solid foundation for consensus-building towards a universal treaty in the ITR. Everyone concerned with international tax dispute resolution – whether policymaker, in-house counsel, national tax authority official, judge, tax lawyer or academic – will find the truly valuable analysis here, not elsewhere.

Derivatives stand at the forefront of financial innovation, continually evolving to accommodate new asset classes and risk categories. In the past decade, the growing popularity of cryptoassets and ESG investments has sparked the development of a variety of innovative investment strategies and risk management tools, including crypto and ESG derivatives and related structured products. This new edition has similarly evolved. Using illustrative examples, it provides a comprehensive analysis of the key tax issues associated with derivatives and cryptoassets in domestic and cross-border transactions and presents approaches that tax legislators could adopt to solve them. The new edition also comments on recent trends in global tax policy, such as the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) 1.0 and 2.0 projects. Throughout the book, specific references are made to UK, German, and Swiss tax law. The updated edition addresses the following topics: economic and financial properties of derivatives and cryptoassets; definition of derivatives for tax purposes and its application to crypto derivatives and ESG derivatives, among others; accounting treatment of derivatives and cryptoassets under IFRS, UK, German and US GAAP; current tax legislation and policy alternatives to the taxation of derivatives and cryptoassets; characterisation of derivatives gains and losses as income or capital, and equity or debt; accounting and taxation treatment of hedging transactions involving derivatives or cryptoassets; accounting and taxation rules applying to structured products and hybrid instruments, including crypto and ESG-linked structured products; withholding taxes on derivatives and the concept of beneficial ownership in domestic and cross-border transactions; and anti-avoidance legislation applying to derivatives and cryptoassets, including the domestic law implementation of BEPS Action 2, the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directives (ATAD I and II), the tax transparency rules for cryptoassets (DAC8) and Pillar Two. This comprehensive book analyses recent developments in three intertwined areas of expertise: financial products, accounting and tax law. It will be a valuable resource to tax professionals in their daily practice of advising companies, banks and investment funds. It will also be of interest to government officials and researchers engaged in the taxation of derivatives, cryptoassets, and ESG investment products.

The topics of double non-taxation and hybrid entities have acquired particular importance in a context where transformations in the tax world have led to international commitments materialised in the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. In what is the first systematic in-depth analysis of the OECD BEPS Action Plan 2 and hybrid entities, this timely book provides a critical review of the approach adopted by the OECD and proposes a deeply informed alternative method to deal with the problem of hybrid entity mismatches. The author analyses the interaction between the double non-taxation outcome and the use of hybrid entities in an approach not strictly linked to any specific tax jurisdiction. To this end, the analysis includes case studies and examples from a range of jurisdictions emphasising the international tax context, also including the application of tax treaties. Among the seminal matters covered in this edition are the following: foundations of the concepts of double non-taxation and hybrid entities; extensive analysis based on the rules of characterisation of foreign entities for tax purposes in the United States, Spain, Denmark, and Germany, as well as on the Poland/United States and Canada/United States tax treaties; in-depth analysis of the implications of Article 1(2) OECD Model Tax Convention and Article 3(1) Multilateral Instrument (MLI), especially considering the position of developing (source) countries; detailed analysis of the OECD BEPS Action 2 and its recommendations (linking rules), including its implementation in the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD); and elaborated alternative method to deal with hybrid entity mismatches (reactive coordination rule), which is informed by the tax policy aims of simplicity, coherence, and administrability. Detailed comparisons between the author’s proposal and other existing rules elucidate common points and deviations. If merely for its unparalleled clarification of the issues, this book will prove of immeasurable value to practitioners, tax authorities, policymakers and academics concerned with international tax law. Beyond that, as an authoritative guide that promises to reorient the discussion to what really matters in the debate regarding hybrid entity mismatches, this analysis elaborates solutions applicable to a generality of cases worldwide and, therefore, hugely promotes the urgent quest for alternative views.

Series on International Taxation Residence and Economic Substance of Subsidiary Corporations in International and European Tax Law It is well known that multinational corporations establish foreign subsidiaries in great measure to reduce their worldwide tax burden. This groundbreaking book examines the content of the substance requirement in double tax convention residence rules, transfer pricing rules, anti-abuse rules, and controlled foreign corporation rules in the context of international and EU tax law, disentangling the complex relationship between the substance requirements in these four sets of legal rules. Following a descriptive-analytic method, for each substance requirement of the four sets of legal rules, the discussion deals with the content of economic substance in complex scenarios, for example: holding companies; special purpose vehicles; loss-making subsidiaries; subsidiaries with management in more than one state; subsidiaries managed by the parent company; outsourcing; and subsidiaries ‘borrowing’ the substance of other group companies. The author introduces a new method of assessment of substance requirements, offering practical solutions for their uniform application in international and European tax law. In its thorough examination of how substance requirements work and how they are interrelated among different sets of tax rules, this book has no peers. It will be welcomed by taxation practitioners and corporate counsel in Europe and worldwide.