Tax Competition and the Case of Bank Secrecy Rules: New Trends in International Tax Law

The current integration of world markets has led to an increase in the competition for businesses in addition to the competition for passive investments that already existed. In addition, the current financial crisis led countries to search for additional sources of revenue in order to work within their budget constraints. As tax is an area where such competition is more visible, it has also generated an effort – mainly from industrialized countries and international organizations – to curb tax practices deemed harmful to world economy. Bank secrecy rules and lack of transparency are aspects of these harmful tax practices. This dissertation will focus on (i) how such rules work and how harmful they can be; (ii) jurisdiction aspects that may limit the ways countries may employ to deal with the situation; (iii) how secrecy rules affect privacy rights and how such rights may not be absolute in certain situations, and, last but not least, (iv) what bi-(multi)lateral and unilateral measures are being taken to deal with these harmful practices

Tax Competition and the Case of Bank Secrecy Rules: New Trends in International Tax Law

The current integration of world markets has led to an increase in the competition for businesses in addition to the competition for passive investments that already existed. In addition, the current financial crisis led countries to search for additional sources of revenue in order to work within their budget constraints. As tax is an area where such competition is more visible, it has also generated an effort – mainly from industrialized countries and international organizations – to curb tax practices deemed harmful to world economy. Bank secrecy rules and lack of transparency are aspects of these harmful tax practices. This dissertation will focus on (i) how such rules work and how harmful they can be; (ii) jurisdiction aspects that may limit the ways countries may employ to deal with the situation; (iii) how secrecy rules affect privacy rights and how such rights may not be absolute in certain situations, and, last but not least, (iv) what bi-(multi)lateral and unilateral measures are being taken to deal with these harmful practices

Comparative Tax Law: Theory and Practice

On 3 October 2009, a Conference on Comparative Tax Law in Theory and Practice took place at the University of Michigan Law School. It was organized by Reuven Avi-Yonah (Professor, University of Michigan Law School) and Mathias Reimann (Editor, American Journal of Comparative Law and Professor, University of Michigan Law School), and was attended by Hugh Ault (Professor of Law, Boston College Law School), Victor Thuronyi (Senior Counsel, International Monetary Fund), Brian Arnold (Professor Emeritus, University of Western Ontario), William Barker (Professor, The Dickinson School of Law, Penn State), Michael Livingston (Professor, Rutgers School of Law-Camden), Carlo Garbarino (Professor of Taxation, Bocconi University, Milan), Assaf Likhovski (Associate Professor, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law and Visiting Professor, UCLA Law School), Omri Marian (Scientiae Juridicae Doctor (SJD), University of Michigan Law School), and Nicola Sartori (International University College, Turin and SJD, University of Michigan Law School)