Taxation Cases

ARTICLES ON TAXATION

Tax Avoidance, Its Effects, and Dutch Facilitation

Major tax avoidance helps the few, but harms the many

Tax avoidance is a persistent feature of our modern economic system. Oliver Bullough, a journalist who has written extensively on tax evasion in Eastern Europe, compared offshore finance to Feynman’s quote: “if you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.” Taxation is dauntingly complex, made more so by misunderstandings in popular culture. When most people think “tax haven”, they imagine the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, while the more informed think Delaware and Cyprus. Rarely does the United Kingdom, where the City of London is at the centre of a vast tax planning network, come to mind. Nor do people consider the Netherlands, with its quaint canals and pot-smoking tourists, to be the single biggest facilitator of tax avoidance in the world. READ MORE.

Tax Systems: A Brief Ethical Discourse

While complaining about income tax is universal, there seems little doubt or disagreement about the importance of taxation for the functioning of a civil society. READ MORE

The Ethics of Taxation Trilogy

Part I: An Ethical Analysis of Inheritance Tax

In order to examine the ethical implications of an inheritance tax, it helps to first distinguish between estate tax and inheritance tax. READ MORE

The Ethics of Taxation Trilogy

Part II: The Buffett Rule and The Ethics of a Millionaire’s Tax

What are the economic and ethical implications of a federally imposed tax on those making more than $1,000,000 annually? READ MORE…

The Ethics of Taxation Trilogy

Part III: Carried Interest and Taxing Private Equity

Recent debate on the ability of private equity managers to claim their income as capital gains and therefore, be taxed at the lower capital gains tax rate raises ethical questions about the U.S. federal tax system. READ MORE.

The EU Financial Transaction Tax Debate

Levying financial transaction taxes is hardly a new idea. John Maynard Keynes proposed charging some form of tax for financial transactions in the early twentieth century READ MORE…

Ethics Review of Carbon Taxes

The effects of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent. In 2020, wildfires in California and Australia and cyclones in Bangladesh and India caused mass destruction of infrastructure. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (2015) said, “Climate change is intrinsically linked to public health, food and water security, migration, peace, and security. It is a moral issue. It is an issue of social justice, human rights and fundamental ethics. We have a profound responsibilityto the fragile web of life on this Earth, and to this generation and those that will follow.” Addressing climate change is thus not only a technical and political challenge, but an ethical one. READ MORE…