The Effectiveness of General-Anti Avoidance Rules

Book Overview
This book introduces a novel approach to evaluating the effectiveness of general anti-avoidance rules through a comprehensive legal and economic perspective at both the EU and OECD levels.
Key Themes and Topics
General anti-avoidance rules (GAARs) have garnered considerable interest since their extensive implementation throughout the European Union and OECD countries. A key inquiry is whether these rules are successful in fulfilling their intended goals.
This book presents an innovative framework for assessing the legal and economic effects of GAARs implemented in EU and OECD jurisdictions. Drawing on core legal and economic theories, it introduces a pioneering interdisciplinary approach that combines a tax law and economics method to evaluate the impact of GAARs established by the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive, as well as the principal purposes test (PPT) introduced through the BEPS Project.
By treating the global network of international tax treaties as a joint network with multiple facets shaped by the domestic tax regulations of involved states, this book uses legal and economic network theory to evaluate the impact of constraining taxpayers' options for tax planning and treaty shopping, a consequence introduced by the ATAD GAAR and the BEPS PPT. Through detailed analyses of four sample countries (Australia, Denmark, France, and Germany) the book evaluates the impact in light of distinct domestic tax legislation specifications that occur in each state: some with a long-standing history of using GAARs, some newly adapting to these regulations, some that are EU Member States, including both EU Member States and OECD member countries, and each governed by distinct legal constitutional systems.
These thorough impact assessments and legal evaluations seek to determine if the application of GAARs in the EU and OECD meets their intended goals: (i) economically, by ensuring that the rules effectively allocate tax revenue to the locations where it is generated, and (ii) legally, by preventing tax avoidance and promoting harmonization among states in these areas.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Tax Policy in a Time of Crisis: Ensuring the Tax Revenue
Chapter 3: Preventing Treaty Abuse within the OECD Framework
Chapter 4: Judicial Anti-Avoidance in the European Union
Chapter 5: Alignment between the European Union and the OECD: An Interlocking Relationship
Chapter 6: A Network Analysis to Estimate the Effects of Anti-Avoidance Measures in the European Union and the OECD
Chapter 7: Case Studies
Chapter 8: Conclusion – Effectiveness of the GAARs