Tax may not be taxing

Monday 11th April 2016 11:44 EDT
 

At present there is no such thing as International Tax Law. It relates to tax on foreign-country source income accruing to residents and resident-country source income accruing to non-residents.

Perhaps the International Court of Justice could be used as a suitable vehicle to resolving tax disputes.

World Trade Organisation could formulate tax harmonisation rules that includes Capital Import Neutrality (CIN), Capital Export Neutrality (CEN), Capital Ownership Neutrality (CON) and National Ownership Neutrality (NON) in international trade in goods, services, intellectual property, ecommerce, etc.

One urgent action all Tax Authorities worldwide could take in the light of Panama Papers disclosures is to announce a two-year amnesty so as to allow investors with accounts in tax haven jurisdictions to come forward and settle their outstanding tax liabilities, capped at say 20%.  Not available to anyone already under investigations, in return for full and unprompted disclosure, the tax authorities would not seek to recover further tax due or associated penalties.

Finally, there is also tax evasion domestically in all countries: that could easily be curbed if Tax Returns require private drawings to be declared every year as it is grossly unfair on those who do not engage in such practice.

Nagindas Khajuria

By email


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