Legal Interpretation of Tax Law

This book is the first to deal comparatively with tax law interpretation in economies engaged in cross-border investment at a global level.

Leading experts in eleven jurisdictions – ranging from longstanding 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 following:-

• how the judiciary is organized in each jurisdiction as regards tax law;
• the role, if any, of the central government’s high court in providing precedent and guidelines for interpretation;
• external sources a court can consider when interpreting legislation;
• constitutional restrictions on interpretation of legislation;
• prevalence of the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR);
• “transplanted” categories (an undefined term is clarified through the meaning of that same term in another law);
• the concept of “ordinary income”;
• the concept of “capital” expenses;
• interpretation of tax treaties; and
• interrelation of judicial interpretation and administrative interpretation.

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. Because effective cross-border tax consulting requires not only knowledge of tax law per se but also of how tax law is explained and interpreted in the courts of foreign jurisdictions, this unmatched resource will prove of great value 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.

Both practitioners and academics will appreciate the insight offered on how tax law generally and particular tax provisions specifically are likely to be applied to different types of cross-border transactions and investments.