Robert F. van Brederode – författare

Series on International Taxation Volume 46

Legal Interpretation of Tax Law is a comprehensive multi-jurisdiction survey of the interpretation of the corporate income tax and VAT and GST or other general sales tax laws. As a result of the globalization of trade and business, tax departments and their external advisors are increasingly required to deal with the tax law of foreign jurisdictions. Effective consulting, whether internal or external, requires not only knowledge of tax law per se but also of how tax law is explained and interpreted by the courts of foreign jurisdictions. This book is the first to deal comparatively with tax law interpretation in economies engaged in cross-border investment at a global level.

What’s in this book:

Leading experts from fourteen jurisdictions – ranging from long-standing common law and civil law countries to emerging economies and transitional economies shifting from socialist to market systems – provide detailed analysis and commentary on such tax law topics and issues as:

The introduction outlines the theoretical approaches to legal interpretation in general and gives an overview of issues and topics relevant to taxation – designed to help readers understand the jurisdictional chapters that follow. Each author pays detailed attention to such documentary elements as explanatory memoranda, administrative rulings, judicial precedents, judgments of foreign courts, legislative debates, and OECD guidelines.

How this will help you:

This book helps practitioners and academics gain insight into how tax law and its provisions, in general and in particular, are likely to be applied to different types of cross-border transactions and investments. This unmatched resource thus serves as a handbook of information to tax departments and their advisors, tax lawyers working for international law firms and accounting firms, and in-house tax professionals working for multinational companies.

Value-added tax (VAT) is a mainstay of revenue systems in more than 160 countries. Because consumption is a more stable revenue base than other tax bases, VAT is less distorting and hence more likely to encourage investment, savings, optimum labor supply decisions, and growth. VAT is not without criticism however, and faces its own specific technical and policy challenges. This book, the first to thoroughly evaluate VAT from a global policy perspective after over 50 years of experience with its intricacies, offers authoritative perspectives on VAT’s full spectrum—from its signal successes to the subtle ways its application can undermine revenue performance and economic neutrality.

The contributors—leading tax practitioners and academics—examine the key policy issues and topics that are crucially relevant for measuring the success of the tax in the first part of the book, including:

The second part offers six country reports—on New Zealand, Japan, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, and India—to demonstrate the different ways in which VAT operates in a variety of national economies.

Whether a government is contemplating the imposition of a general consumption tax for the first time or new rules for applying an existing one, it is important for policymakers to keep central the aim to design a tax that realizes optimal efficiency and causes minimal distortions. This invaluable book serves as an expert guide to VAT policy development in this area. It will be welcomed not only by concerned government officials but also by tax professionals (both lawyers and accountants) and academics in tax law.

Value-added tax (VAT) is a mainstay of revenue systems in more than 160 countries. Because consumption is a more stable revenue base than other tax bases, VAT is less distorting and hence more likely to encourage investment, savings, optimum labor supply decisions, and growth. VAT is not without criticism however, and faces its own specific technical and policy challenges. This book, the first to thoroughly evaluate VAT from a global policy perspective after over 50 years of experience with its intricacies, offers authoritative perspectives on VAT’s full spectrum—from its signal successes to the subtle ways its application can undermine revenue performance and economic neutrality.

The contributors—leading tax practitioners and academics—examine the key policy issues and topics that are crucially relevant for measuring the success of the tax in the first part of the book, including:

The second part offers six country reports—on New Zealand, Japan, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, and India—to demonstrate the different ways in which VAT operates in a variety of national economies.

Whether a government is contemplating the imposition of a general consumption tax for the first time or new rules for applying an existing one, it is important for policymakers to keep central the aim to design a tax that realizes optimal efficiency and causes minimal distortions. This invaluable book serves as an expert guide to VAT policy development in this area. It will be welcomed not only by concerned government officials but also by tax professionals (both lawyers and accountants) and academics in tax law.

This book explores how taxation is related to the role of the state and its relationship with its constituents, the concept of private property rights, the concepts of societal fairness and justice, and the battle between the individual and the collective. This book appeals to students and scholars who want to know how philosophers in the past and present think about taxation, and how their thinking has developed through cross-influencing. There exists no comprehensive study providing such an overview. 

This book is a foundational study on the philosophical justification of taxation (qualitative aspect) and the normative qualifications required of tax law to constitute tax that is just and fair (distributive or quantitative aspect). The latter includes evaluation of what type of tax is morally correct or acceptable to realize distributive justice. This book covers periods from the Enlightenment era until the present. The philosophers are grouped together in schools of thought and each chapter except for chapter 1 and chapter 13, are is dedicated to a specific philosophical school. 

Moreover, this book aims to provide an overview of each school of thinking and the individual philosophers, including placing them in the context of their times. The book has particular importance as the study of taxation is an underdeveloped area of political and legal philosophy.

This book, Christian Perspectives on the Role of the State, Justice, and Taxation, examines the historical and ongoing influence of Christian ethical thought on taxation, governance, and distributive justice. Building on themes introduced in Political Philosophy and Taxation (Springer, 2022), which focused on secular perspectives, this sequel shifts attention to the contributions of Christian thinkers from Medieval times to the present. The book explores key questions surrounding the role of the state, the relationship between the state and its subjects, the moral right to tax, and what constitutes fairness in taxation. It investigates how Christian ethical teachings have shaped Western political philosophy, particularly in the context of distributive justice, and evaluates their relevance in contemporary discussions. By analyzing the intersection of theology, ethics, and political philosophy, this book provides a deeper understanding of how Christian traditions have influenced historical notions of justice, fairness, and governance. It offers insights into how these principles can inform modern policy debates and ethical considerations in taxation. This book serves as a valuable resource for scholars, students, and professionals interested in religious ethics, political philosophy, and public policy. It invites readers to reflect on the enduring impact of Christian thought on concepts of justice and the responsibilities of the state.