Abuse of law

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (the highest appeal court for a number of Commonwealth countries) ruled  last month that payment rapid payment of dividends by a Trinidadian company …

The recent English Court of Appeal decision in Hargreaves Property Holdings Ltd v HMRC [2024] EWCA Civ 365 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2024/365.html  has again examined the meaning of…

In my previous blog I examined the Tax Court of Canada’s analysis of the meaning of beneficial ownership in tax treaties in Husky Energy Inc. v The King, 2023 TCC 167 in relation to stock or…

Although the meaning of beneficial ownership in tax treaties first burst onto the scene in Indofood International Finance Ltd v JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. London Branch [2006] EWCA Civ 158  and, for…

Even before introduction of the BEPS PPT, the UK has had purpose-based provisions in various forms, designed to limit access to treaty benefits in its double tax treaties since the 1960’s. Its…

When the UK introduced its diverted profits tax, I was telephoned by a lawyer at the US Treasury. He wanted to know whether the “just and reasonable” apportionment of profits, in certain…

One objective of Estonian Tax and Customs Board (ETCB) is to provide simple and convenient services to taxpayers. To achieve this, the ETCB has invested significant amount of resources to enable…

Case law on thepurpose of transactions is starting to develop around the world. Is there a common pattern? Whether a financing structure was a “tax avoidance arrangement”  under  now repealed general…

Recently, national courts of several EU member States (notably France[1], Italy[2], the Netherlands[3] and Spain[4]) referred to the landmark judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (…