Bloomsbury Professional Tax Insight: Practical Guide to International Taxation

This title provides practitioners and students with a concise and clear introduction to international tax law and how it is applied, particularly in relation to the taxation of private investment income. It is a valuable resource for advisers who deal with cross-border tax issues infrequently or are encountering it for the first time.

The book covers the background to international tax law and the interaction with national tax law set by individual countries. The amount of cross-border investment by individuals and businesses continues to increase as the world gets smaller. The growth of the digital economy and various world events such as Brexit have increased this trend and as a result tax-payers and their advisers are encountering double taxation issues for the first time.

The author examines how the right to tax different types of cross-border flows of income (such as business, property, employment and investment income) and of different types of capital gains is shared between the state where those profits originated (the ＂source state＂) and the state where the individual or company receiving them is based (the ＂residence state＂). This is considered both under the OECD Model Treaty that acts as the basis of most double tax treaties and also under EU tax law, which at times overrides and is more favourable to the taxpayer than a double tax treaty.

Cross-border inheritance and gift tax treaties are also considered, and how they share out taxing rights between source and residence states. This is followed by an introduction to different kinds of entities used in offshore tax planning, which also describes some of the possibilities of structuring transactions using those entities. It includes warning sections for practitioners to help them avoid getting their fingers burnt: firstly an introduction to anti-avoidance rules under domestic law and tax treaties; secondly a section on international exchange of financial and tax information as well as cooperation on cross-border enforcement of tax debts to warn the reader to assume full transparency of all their transactions for tax purposes rather than rely on the ＂not found out rule＂, as was often possible in the past. Finally, in cases where this advice has not been followed, there is a section on regularising under-declared assets.

Key areas of commentary including the introductory section, are followed by a short set of revision questions and answers so that readers can self-test whether they have grasped the key points.

Author: Tom Wesel is a practising barrister specialising in cross-border tax planning for entrepreneurs and private clients. He was for many years in charge of the Master’s degree in international tax at King’s College, London, an examiner for the ADIT qualification of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and continues to teach international tax to postgraduates at King’s College and to HMRC.