Implementation of Arbitration Decisions in Domestic Law

Arbitration, even if it seems simply providing for the possibility of arbitration, is increasingly attracting attention as a possible means to discipline the resolution of otherwise potentially intractable international tax controversies concerning the allocation of taxing rights under tax treaties.While perceived, though not without reservation, to be a potential welcome addition to a typical mutual agreement procedure (MAP) patterned on article 25 (“the MAP article”) of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and Capital(“the OECD Model”) in the form of article 25(5), other provisions of article 25, notably its “interpretive” and “application,”and “legislative”,aspects and contemplated recourse to a “joint commission”reflect a long-standing awareness, even possibly a latent expectation, that objective interveners and alternative or supplementary means or other extensions of the MAP beyond the typical limits of a “specific case”may help the MAP to achieve its full potential. In fact, one author, in a thoughtful and wide-ranging analysis of arbitration in the tax context, has essentially presumed its usefulness but, in a fashion to which these comments are sensitive, has referred to “mandatory arbitration” as “a solution in search of a problem”. These comments express a point of view as a contribution to the discussions framed by this book. They proceed on the assumption, for the most part, that an otherwise legally effective arbitration decision can be reached and that what remains is to give it fair effect in relation to states’ assessments of taxpayers under their laws. No assumptions are made about the specific features or peculiarities of particular states’ laws. Ultimately, of course these matter

Tax Law within the Larger Legal System

Tax law may be viewed as occupying its own universe, even though tax funds the implementation of public policies that animate Canadian society. This article reminds us that tax law must respond to basic rule-of-law norms in spite of overarching and well-meaning policy goals. It adopts reference points featured in recent cases. One is the Charter, which limits penalties that can be imposed on non-compliant taxpayers and tax advisers without adhering to due process safeguards. Another is the impact of international arrangements among countries in a global business environment to guide consistent regulatory responses and to identify and share information. No matter how seemingly efficient or well-grounded, international norms still need to be safely grounded in Parliamentary authority to be enforceable in relation to Canadian taxpayers. All practitioners concerned with tax equity, neutrality, and efficiency should remember that tax law exists within a larger legal system and must be so evaluated; occasionally, it must yield to the legal principles underlying that system

Designing Tax Policy: Constraints and Objectives in an Open Economy

This paper is a non-technical discussion by an economist and lawyer, each with long international experience in taxation, of the constraints and objectives that in principle and practice shape tax policy design. After discussing the main factors traditionally taken into account by those charged with designing tax policy in any country – such as revenue, the costs of taxation, equity and fairness, administrability, and the effects of taxation on growth and other non-fiscal objectives – several additional important considerations associated with ‘globalization’ are then discussed with special attention to income taxes. The paper concludes with a brief reflection on how the ‘new world tax order’ in which countries must now develop their tax systems may perhaps develop over time

Spatiotemporal Statistical Downscaling for the Fusion of In-lake and Remote Sensing Data

This paper addresses the problem of fusing data from in-lake monitoring programmes with remote sensing data, through statistical downscaling. A Bayesian hierarchical model is developed, in order to fuse the in-lake and remote sensing data using spatially-varying coefficients. The model is applied to an example dataset of log(chlorophyll-a) data for Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes of North America

Which anticoagulant is safest for frail elderly patients with nonvalvular A-fib?

Consider apixaban, which demonstrated a lower adverse event (AE) rate than warfarin regardless of frailty status, for anticoagulation treatment of older patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF); by comparison, AE rates for dabigatran and rivaroxaban were lower vs warfarin only among nonfrail individuals.J. Scott Earwood, MD; Justin L. Wilkie, MD; Jennifer L. Fernandez-Vasquez, MD, (Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon)Includes bibliographical reference

Hierarchical Species Distribution Modelling Across High Dimensional Nested Spatial Scales

We propose a two-stage modelling approach to evaluate how a large suite of environmental metrics available over nested spatial scales shape species distributions. We focus on dragonfly communities, where the data consist of par- tially observed presence records, making identifying the ecological processes driv- ing the true species distribution/occupancy patterns difficult

Data Fusion of Remote-sensing and In-lake chlorophyll a Data Using Statistical Downscaling

Chlorophyll a is a green pigment, used as an indirect measure of lake water quality. Its strong absorption of blue and red light allows for quantification through satellite images, providing better spatial coverage than traditional in-lake samples. However, grid-cell scale imagery must be calibrated spatially using in-lake point samples, presenting a change-of-support problem. This paper presents a method of statistical downscaling, namely a Bayesian spatially-varying coefficient regression, which assimilates remotely-sensed and in-lake data, resulting in a fully calibrated spatial map of chlorophyll a with associated uncertainty measures. The model is applied to a case study dataset from Lake Balaton, Hungary