2026

This paper develops a comprehensive legal and economic framework for taxing cross-border services. It compares destination-based consumption taxes such as VAT, gross-revenue taxes including digital services taxes, income-based nexus and withholding rules, and anti-avoidance measures directed at deductible cross-border service payments. The authors argue that evaluating these instruments separately obscures their interactions and conclude that broader reliance on destination-based taxation may address the challenges posed by digitalized services trade more effectively than narrower and more distortionary alternatives.

Citation: CESifo Working Paper No. 12845

This paper examines the relationship between tax competitiveness and business research and development expenditures across EU countries. Using data from the International Tax Competitiveness Index, OECD, and Eurostat, the authors assess the effects of corporate tax rules and tax-policy instruments on private-sector R&D. They find that overall tax competitiveness is significantly associated with business R&D expenditures, while the effects of R&D tax credits are mixed, and they highlight the importance of less-studied instruments such as tax depreciation rules.

This paper examines whether a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax that effectively eliminates the benefit of domestic tax incentives could breach investment-treaty protections. Revisiting the Micula v. Romania arbitration, a rare merits award centered on a host state’s cancellation of tax incentives, the author assesses when the introduction of a QDMTT may violate the fair-and-equitable-treatment standard. The paper highlights the potential tension between implementation of the OECD Pillar Two Global Minimum Tax and states’ obligations under international investment agreements.

This article examines whether Pigouvian taxes remain effective when the relevant markets and harms extend across national borders. The authors develop a framework centered on the location of markets and harms, interjurisdictional competition and heterogeneity, and distributional considerations to determine when cross-national coordination is necessary and feasible. Applying the framework to carbon emissions, financial transactions, soda consumption, and wealth concentration, the article identifies structural risks of evasion, arbitrage, and regulatory failure and proposes design features that may improve the effectiveness of cross-border corrective taxation.

Citation: Cardozo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2026-15 (forthcoming U.C. Davis L. Rev.)

This paper examines how U.S. public firms respond to increased scrutiny from foreign tax authorities following the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Using proprietary data on H-1B visa lottery outcomes, the authors find that firms with greater exposure to foreign tax audits are more likely to recruit foreign tax experts and that firms whose petitions are randomly selected subsequently achieve more favorable audit outcomes. The effects are concentrated among experts with prior experience dealing with foreign tax authorities and suggest that specialized local institutional knowledge can reduce firms’ cross-border tax-enforcement burdens.

This paper examines how U.S. multinational enterprises respond to the Global Minimum Tax under Pillar Two. Using historical ownership data and the EU’s adoption of Pillar Two, the authors find that U.S. multinationals are significantly more likely than European multinationals to restructure ownership chains to reduce exposure to the minimum tax, while U.S. firms with tax haven exposure show no detectable increase in effective tax rates. Survey evidence from U.S. tax directors further supports the analysis, and the authors conclude that corporate restructuring and tax-policy responses by low-tax jurisdictions substantially weaken the intended effects of the Global Minimum Tax.

This article examines the evolution of international tax treaty anti-abuse mechanisms addressing treaty shopping and tax avoidance, using Aiken Industries as a starting point to analyze the balance between legal certainty and interpretive flexibility. It considers mechanisms including beneficial ownership, the Principal Purpose Test, and Limitation on Benefits rules, and explores how artificial intelligence could assist in interpreting and applying such measures. The article also addresses risks associated with the use of AI in tax administration, including transparency, explainability, and regulatory compliance.

This dissertation examines the arm’s length standard from the perspective of developing and dependent economies, assessing both empirical and theoretical critiques of its application in international transfer pricing. It considers the OECD’s current treatment of the standard, including the two-pillar framework, and analyzes alternative practices such as Brazil’s fixed margins and China’s Location Specific Advantages. The author ultimately proposes an experimentalist governance model that would allow developing countries to adopt and peer-review similar approaches, particularly where limited fiscal capacity makes enforcement of the traditional arm’s length standard difficult.

The OECD reports the latest peer review results for preferential tax regimes under the BEPS Action 5 minimum standard, using the revised peer review methodology for the first time. The Forum on Harmful Tax Practices reached conclusions on 13 regimes: seven were found “not harmful,” while six in Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Peru, and Serbia remain “under review.” Since the BEPS Project began, the Forum has reviewed 347 regimes, more than 40 percent of which have been or are being abolished.

Using data covering 223 tax systems, this paper examines how jurisdictions have responded to the OECD Pillar Two framework and finds substantial differences in its implementation. It finds that the long-term decline in statutory corporate income tax rates appears to have slowed since the 2021 agreement, while low-tax jurisdictions continue to compete through substance-based tax incentives and preferential regimes designed to interact favorably with Pillar Two rules.

This paper examines the factors determining inclusion on the EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. It finds that countries with greater financial secrecy and less economic bargaining power with the EU are more likely to be listed, while some excluded EU tax havens share characteristics with listed non-EU jurisdictions.

This article examines Hong Kong’s patent box regime in light of regional tax competition and the OECD global minimum tax. It proposes refundable tax credits, increased government grants and subsidies, and additional individual income tax incentives to make Hong Kong’s innovation policies more compatible with the GloBE rules.

This article examines how courts in the East African Community assess national tax and tariff measures that may conflict with common-market commitments. It argues for an explicit proportionality framework to balance states’ fiscal autonomy with the free movement of goods and the integrity of the EAC Common Market.

This paper examines Nigeria’s shift toward digital tax administration and the resulting issues involving data protection, cybersecurity, taxpayer rights, and regulatory fragmentation. It also addresses the taxation of cross-border digital activities and considers OECD initiatives in the context of Nigeria’s evolving digital tax framework.

This article examines how the shift away from globalization may reshape taxation and tax policy. It analyzes the relationship among globalization, tax competition, capital mobility, and the financing of social safety nets, arguing that deglobalization may give governments greater room to raise revenue without the same degree of tax-base erosion associated with international tax competition. The article also considers the potential revenue implications of higher tariffs and reduced tax evasion.

This paper examines the structural challenges facing Rwanda in taxing business profits arising from digital transactions. It analyzes gaps in the country’s digital tax framework, including limitations in permanent establishment and digital nexus rules, as well as jurisdictional and enforcement challenges. The paper also considers international responses to digitalization, including the OECD/G20 Pillar One and Pillar Two framework, and recommends reforms addressing digital presence, bilateral tax treaties, and regional coordination within the East African Community.

This OECD Taxation Working Paper provides an early empirical, ex post assessment of how multinational enterprises responded to the introduction of the Global Minimum Tax. Using the EUR 750 million revenue threshold and firm-level data, it examines the reform’s effects on effective tax rates, investment, and employment, as well as whether MNEs adjusted their behavior in anticipation of implementation. The paper also uses its estimated effects on effective tax rates to assess the potential revenue raised by the Global Minimum Tax in its first year.

This article examines location-specific rents as a basis for allocating taxing rights among sovereign states and addresses the practical challenge of measuring such rents. It argues that tax competition can help quantify the income international firms derive specifically from operating in a particular jurisdiction. The analysis has implications for inter-nation equity and the allocation of source-country taxing rights in international taxation.

This paper examines tax compliance challenges faced by multinational enterprises operating in emerging markets, focusing on administrative discretion, regulatory ambiguity, and aggressive tax audits. Using a mining project in Sierra Leone as a case study, it analyzes how a multinational enterprise responded to a contested tax assessment and argues for digital compliance systems as a means of institutionalizing tax controls and reducing exposure to discretionary enforcement. The paper highlights the role of internal tax governance and digitalization in managing tax risk in weak institutional environments.

This report reviews the work of the Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative, a joint OECD/UNDP program supporting developing jurisdictions in tax audits, enforcement, and international tax administration. It highlights how capacity-building programs are being used to strengthen audit outcomes, address cross-border tax issues, and combat illicit financial flows through practical assistance to tax authorities.

This paper provides a structured survey of three decades of empirical research on tax-motivated income shifting by multinational corporations. It organizes the literature around the mechanisms, determinants, consequences, and estimated magnitudes of income shifting, and identifies areas where future research could improve measurement methods and expand analysis of multinational tax planning behavior.

This article examines Pakistan’s statutory regime for taxing cross-border digital transactions and its interaction with international tax rules. It focuses on the coexistence of Pakistan’s digital tax measures with its double tax agreements, including questions involving permanent establishment, business nexus, duplication across multiple legislative instruments, and enforcement by domestic tax authorities.

Citation: Khan Niazi, Shafi Ullah, Statutory Measures Adopted by Pakistan to Tax Cross-Border Digital Transactions: Inconsistencies and Inadequacies? (March 31, 2026). Statute Law Review, Volume 47, No. 2. pp. 1-19.

This paper examines the tax treatment of crypto-assets in the European Union and compares the EU approach with developments in the United Kingdom, United States, Singapore, and the UAE. It focuses on the gap between harmonised financial regulation under MiCA and fragmented tax rules across jurisdictions, with particular attention to DAC8, the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, classification problems, enforcement gaps intensified by anonymity and decentralised finance, and divergent implementation rules.

This article examines how international tax treaties allocate taxing rights over dependent employment income in an era of remote work, frontier work, and digital mobility. Focusing on Article 15 of the OECD Model Tax Convention, the author argues that existing rules are no longer adequate for cross-border telework and proposes a reform based on the Ottawa Taxation Framework and labor neutrality principles.

This paper examines the incidence of digital services taxes imposed on large digital platforms, focusing on whether the burden is borne by platforms or passed on to advertisers through higher advertising prices. Using Google Ads data across 29 European countries, the authors find that advertisers bear a substantial share of the tax burden, with evidence of near-complete pass-through through higher effective costs per click.

This volume provides a comparative overview of major transaction-based taxes, including VAT/GST, customs duties, tariffs, excise duties, environmental taxes, digital services taxes, and taxes on capital transfers. It situates indirect taxation in a global context by drawing on examples from multiple jurisdictions and referencing OECD, IMF, UN, and EU standards, with attention to the challenges posed by digitalization, globalization, and environmental policy.

This paper examines the incidence of digital service taxes, focusing on how such taxes affect prices and tax burdens in platform markets such as Amazon. By studying who ultimately bears the cost of taxes imposed on large digital platforms, the paper contributes to debates over the economic effects of unilateral digital tax measures.

This paper examines whether Canada’s tax sovereignty has narrowed as domestic legislation increasingly responds to international tax coordination and cross-border tax challenges. It uses changes to the Income Tax Act to consider how far national tax autonomy may be constrained by external pressures, coordinated standards, and the need to respond to international tax planning.

This article examines the historical origins of retaliatory taxation in the United States and its relationship to the development of America’s first tax treaty. Cui uses newly examined historical materials to show how retaliatory tax measures and treaty-based cooperation emerged as competing approaches to international tax conflict.