Comparative Income Taxation: A Structural Analysis

Comparative Income Taxation

A Structural Analysis

Fourth Edition

Hugh J. Ault, Brian J. Arnold & Graeme S. Cooper

In complex national income tax systems, structural and design variations from one country to another present major obstacles to the kind of comparative understanding that economic globalization requires. Hence the great significance of this outstanding book, highly acclaimed through three previous editions and now thoroughly updated to encompass the latest changes and trends. In it, leading authorities from eleven of the world's most important national taxation systems each contribute their particular expertise to a study of specific crucial problems of tax design. In addition to the nine countries covered in previous editions--Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States--China and India have now been added to provide the perspective of developing countries.

Individually authored country descriptions outline the climate and institutional framework in which each of the eleven national taxation systems' substantive rules operate. All the country descriptions are analyzed in accordance with a common format to facilitate comparisons of the ways in which the countries' tax systems are similar and in which they differ. They form the background to an expertly informed comparative analysis focusing on three major areas: basic income taxation, taxation of business organizations and international taxation. Most of the rules especially important for international business and investment are dealt with here, including (among many others) rules on the following:

• classification of business entities;
• taxation of corporations and their shareholders;
• corporate organization and restructuring;
• taxation of partnerships;
• residence and source taxation;
• controlled foreign company rules;
• restrictions on the deduction of interest;
• courts dealing with tax matters; and
• effect of tax treaties.

Several new topics--including the classification of employees and independent contractors, the taxation of pensions, patent box regimes, the taxation of indirect transfers and the tax challenges of the digital economy--have been added. Especially timely are discussions of changes stemming from the G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project. The introduction has also been expanded to include a new section on European Union (EU) law as it affects the tax laws of EU Member States.

This new edition of a classic source of information and analysis for students, professors, researchers, tax practitioners and tax policy officials on the different ways that countries design their income tax systems will be widely welcomed by the international tax community.

Hugh J. Ault is Professor Emeritus at Boston College Law School and the original author of Comparative Income Taxation: A Structural Analysis. He was a senior adviser at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developments (OECD s) Centre for Tax Policy and Administration for many years and more recently a consultant for the United Nations Capacity Development Unit. He is the author of several influential articles on U.S. and international taxation and has been a visiting professor at universities in Europe, Asia, and Australia. He is currently Visiting Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich and Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of Stockholm Centre for Commercial Law. He is the recipient of two honorary degrees for his contributions to international and comparative tax law from the University of Stockholm and the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium. Brian J. Arnold is Senior Adviser, Canadian Tax Foundation, Toronto. He taught tax law at a Canadian law school for twenty-eight years and practiced tax law part time for many years with major Toronto law firms. He has been a consultant to various governments, the OECD, and the United Nations. He was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School from 2005 to 2011 and at New York University School of Law in 2005 and 2012 and currently teaches comparative international tax at the University of Sydney. He is the author of the International Tax Primer, 4th edition, Wolters Kluwer 2019. Graeme S. Cooper is Professor of Taxation Law at the University of Sydney and has taught tax at Law Schools in the U.S., Canada, Belgium, and The Netherlands. He is the author of many articles and several books published in Australia and internationally. He worked for the OECD in the mid-1990s and as a consultant on projects for the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, United Nations, the Australian government,and several foreign countries. He works as a consultant to specialist tax firm Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills.