The Political Economy of International Tax Governance


Book Description

Covering the period from the 1920s, when international tax policy was solely about avoiding double taxation, to the present era of international tax competition, Rixen investigates the fate of 'the power to tax' in an era of globalization, illustrating that tax sovereignty is both shaped and constrained by an international tax regime.




Global Tax Governance


Book Description

High-profile scandals and increasing public debt after the financial crisis have put international taxation high on the political agenda. This book offers a rare combination of empirical analysis with normative and institutional proposals for global tax governance.




The Politics of Global Tax Governance


Book Description

Why has global tax governance been politicized and how can we explain the varying intensity and content of public debates? This book offers an integrated theory of the politicization of international institutions and a detailed account of how the institutional design and policy output of tax governance by the EU and OECD have developed over time. Offering the first in-depth empirical analysis to compare politicization across international institutions, it blends institutionalist explanations that focus on the growing authority of international institutions, and sociological and political economy approaches that take into account domestic context. Exploring why and how international institutions have become increasingly contested in the 21st century, this book will be of particular interest to the scholars of the transfer of authority from the nation-state to international institutions, and the societal repercussions and political struggles that connect these processes. Researchers in the fields of political science, international relations, sociology, and political communication will also find it useful and insightful.







Imposing Standards


Book Description

In Imposing Standards, Martin Hearson shifts the focus of political rhetoric regarding international tax rules from tax havens and the Global North to the damaging impact of this regime on the Global South. Even when not exploited by tax dodgers, international tax standards place severe limits on the ability of developing countries to tax businesses, denying the Global South access to much-needed revenue. The international rules that allow tax avoidance by multinational corporations have dominated political debate about international tax in the United States and Europe, especially since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. Hearson asks how developing countries willingly gave up their right to tax foreign companies, charting their assimilation into an OECD-led regime from the days of early independence to the present day. Based on interviews with treaty negotiators, policymakers and lobbyists, as well as observation at intergovernmental meetings, archival research, and fieldwork in Africa and Asia, Imposing Standards shows that capacity constraints and imperfect negotiation strategies in developing countries were exploited by capital-exporting states, shielding multinationals from taxation and depriving nations in the Global South of revenue they both need and deserve. Thanks to generous funding from the Gates Foundation, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.




The Dynamics of Global Economic Governance


Book Description

ÔThis book is an exceptionally interesting and well-researched analysis of one of the most important reforms in global governance that have been put into place in the wake of the global financial crisis that began in 2007. Eccleston insightfully draws on and contributes to theories of global governance, explaining the surprisingly innovative and successful aspects of the global arrangements for combating tax evasion while also highlighting their deficiencies.Õ Ð Tony Porter, McMaster University, Canada ÔIn the atmosphere of fiscal emergency after the financial crisis, international tax policy has become a critical concern. There is no better guide to inter-linked political and economic challenges that result than Richard EcclestonÕs new book, The Dynamics of Global Economic Governance. Eccleston provides a detailed and authoritative guide to global tax governance after the financial crisis, and makes a highly persuasive case that the current international tax regime is fundamentally flawed in its efforts to combat tax evasion.Õ Ð Jason Sharman, Griffith University, Australia The financial crisis that engulfed global markets in 2008 created an acute need for improved international economic cooperation. Despite the G20Õs prominent coordination role, the regulatory response to the crisis has varied considerably across governance arenas. This book focuses on international taxation and examines how the financial crisis prompted renewed attempts to enhance international tax transparency and confront tax havens. It highlights the complexity of international regime change and the significance of national and financial interests, international organizations, domestic politics and the emerging G20 leaders forum in this process. This timely book highlights the challenges in post-financial crisis global economic governance, information that will strongly appeal to scholars and graduate students in the fields of political science, international political economy, global governance, international taxation and law. Stakeholders in the international tax regime including diplomats and tax administrators, international organizations, NGO and business representatives will also find plenty of enriching information in this study.




Global Tax Governance


Book Description




What is Really Wrong with Global Tax Governance and How to Properly Fix It


Book Description

During the course of the last 100 years, the wealthiest and most powerful nations on the planet have systematically gathered around in small groups of experts, scientific committees and working parties, under the auspices of the League of Nations and the OECD, to decide on the appropriate tax policy norms for global implementation. The immediate consequence was, and still is, the creation of an exclusionary architecture that deprives the majority of the world's countries from meaningfully influencing legal-institutional choices vis-à-vis what countries should tax cross-border transactions, a process that has clear global distributional implications. This article sets off to investigate this process of exclusion. It identifies two central elements that constrain broad participation in global tax governance, engendering the under-representation of the interests of developing countries: expertise and power. As further argued, the international tax arena is better understood as an entrenched political space, where influential actors maintain their privileged positions by dominating the debate and decision-making procedures. The author then proceeds to analyse possible remedies to this cartelistic and bureaucratic club model of international taxation governance, such as the creation of new intergovernmental organizations or forums, concluding that all proposals so far end up reproducing the same top-down technocratic mentality embedded in the work of the League of Nations and the OECD. Rejecting old and new solutions for a just world tax order, what the author believes is actually needed is a completely different approach, grounded on contested multilateral practices and diversity of world views. Using critical legal theory, the goal is to provide an alternative way to think (politically) about fiscal relations among developed and developing states.Full-text Paper.







The Political Economy of International Tax Governance


Book Description

Covering the period from the 1920s, when international tax policy was solely about avoiding double taxation, to the present era of international tax competition, Rixen investigates the fate of 'the power to tax' in an era of globalization, illustrating that tax sovereignty is both shaped and constrained by an international tax regime.