GEORGE GILLIGAN, Monash University - Department of Business Law & Taxation
Email: george.gilligan@buseco.monash.edu.au

As the pace and intensity of globalisation gathers pace and national economies become more inter-dependent, so there grows a greater emphasis on the structures and processes of multi-lateral governance. This paper shows these processes at work by examining the efforts in recent years by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to shape what should be prevailing international standards in the area of tax competition through its various initiatives regarding what the OECD terms Harmful Tax Practices. The analysis highlights the strategic importance of: accountability and governance; relative strengths/weaknesses of international protocols, eg treaties, conventions, frameworks of understanding; the appropriate roles of regulatory actors - national, regional and international; the inevitable effects of self-interest on both regulated and regulating actors; and regulatory capacity, especially in less developed economies. The paper's case study illustrates the regulatory reality that political contexts, allied with issues of power and legitimacy are crucial in determining how much impact in reality a multi-lateral regulatory actor such as the OECD can have.

ILAN BENSHALOM, Northwestern University - School of Law
Email: i-benshalom@law.northwestern.edu

The Article offers a new perspective on the way international income tax has developed from its nascency, 85 years ago, to the present day. Its main claim is that, due to the lack of a clear normative tax agenda, trade considerations unduly eroded the income tax base. Such trade considerations highlight the importance of reducing tax obstacles on trade and investment to liberalize and integrate international markets. These considerations penetrated international income tax discourse during the Cold War period, when liberalizing trade was part of a broader western agenda to establish dominance through the liberalization of international markets. The Article demonstrates that the tax allocation conventions developed in the periods prior to the Cold War - and thereafter - were unable to counter successfully an endemic trend of tax erosion. To establish this claim, the Article frames three novel chronological phases and shows how different themes governed each phase. It then connects each theme and the relevant parallel global geo-political occurrences of that phase. The Article presents an original macro perspective of the development of international taxation sourcing conventions. It encapsulates this broad topic by focusing on a number of key issues arising from the conventions regarding the allocation of interest income. Access to foreign capital markets and foreign lenders is paramount to economic growth. Therefore, the tax treatment of interest income has always been a pivotal and controversial issue. The centrality of interest income allocation conventions and their modifications over the years make them a good proxy for understanding the more general evolution of international tax law. Since tax law research is the art of tying big themes with devils hiding in the details, the Article engages in an in-depth critical analysis of a number representative interest allocation mechanisms to demonstrate the dynamics of the income tax erosion it identifies. The Article builds on its historical analysis to open a wider discussion over the proper allocation method for taxing financial income. The mobility and tax sensitivity of capital assets make them the subject of tax planning (by taxpayers) and tax competition (by sovereigns). This renders the analysis important and interesting, but also more multilayered and difficult. The Article concludes with a discussion of the principled normative pillars of any future reform in the allocation of tax revenues arising from financial income. This discussion promotes the notion that, at least in the case of financial transactions within multinational enterprises, there is a need for an immediate strategic shift, if tax authorities wish to maintain the integrity of the corporate income tax.

CHRISTOPH ENGEL, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods
Email: engel@coll.mpg.de

In the US or in the UK, the presence of institutional investors in real estate markets is an old phenomenon. Specifically, Real Estate Investment Trusts are an old industry. Due to a difference in tax law, the market share of REITs in Germany has been minimal until very recently. Now the legislator has extended the tax privileges held by real estate funds to REITs, expecting that the change will make Germany an attractive place for international investors in these markets.
While the effect on capital markets is planned, the German legislator has not been very attentive to likely side effects on the proper functioning of real estate law, landlord and tenant law, and zoning law. The paper analyses these effects, and points to potential legislative concerns.

CARLOS HOEVEL, Affiliation Unknown

This article attempts to lay out the central characteristics of Antonio Rosmini's (1797-1855) fiscal and tributary philosophy. Incorporating a multitude of elements from the doctrines of great economists such as Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, or Simonde de Sismondi and illuminating them with his Christian view of the human person, Rosmini elaborates a complex economic, juridical, and ethical philosophy of taxes. Taking into account these economic-juridical principles, the article also shows the detailed opinions of this great modern philosopher on particular taxes such as income taxes, consumption taxes, taxes on luxury goods, taxes on imports, or taxes applied on the use of public goods. Finally, the article includes Rosmini*s acute observations on direct and indirect taxes as well as his ideas on tax collection, tax laws, and the political role of taxes in order to reach a more just distribution of property in society.