*This is an updated post that reflects helpful comments on the earlier post provided by a number of friends and colleagues who share my interest in this case and indeed the law more broadly. "Loblaws" is an established Canadian grocer. It markets a comprehensive line of high quality products and services, including financial services, […]
Scott's Thoughts
The Taxpayer is Successful Today at the Supreme Court in the Important Alta Energy "Treaty Shopping" Case - Updated
What is "treaty shopping"? It is an often used and disparaging phrase in international tax practice. But, in fact few really know what it means, contrasted with what for various reasons they want it to mean. Today, we have a much better idea of what "treaty shopping" is not. We are also reminded in […]
Professor Scott Wilkie Comments on the Latest OECD "Pillars" Developments
It is well known that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Inclusive Framework of approximately 140 countries that the OECD has organized, have been engaged in developing recommendations to rejig the "rules" and conventions by which countries assume and allocate among each other, taxing rights. The catalyst, of course, and […]
Professor Jinyan Li Speaks About China's Ascendancy in International Tax
Recently, Professor Jinyan Li Spoke about the deveolpment and influence of Chinese tax policy in relation to global economic and tax developments in an inverview hosted by the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, conducted by Professor Johann Hattingh of the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Professor Li's comments are important, coming as they do […]
Resuming After a Hiatus
The Osgoode Tax Blog has been a bit quiet since August, though the same cannot be said for the tax world. We want to say that we are resuming more regular contributions, hopefully several each week, within the spirit of this Blog to contribute to and invigorate "the tax conversation". This is an apt […]
"Coming Soon" II - The Pillars Depart Venice
The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors issued a Communiqué yesterday which among other things, and not surprisingly, heralds "a historic agreement on a more stable and fairer international tax architecture" and "endorse[s] the key components of the two pillars on the reallocation of profits of multinational enterprises and an effective global minimum […]
Reflecting on the OECD’s July 1 “Two-Pillar Plan” Announcement
“Coming Soon”? It is possible to be hopeful and constructively critical of the OECD’s Two-Pillars strategy that flows out of the BEPS project, most recently advanced in the OECD’s July 1 announcement now a feature component of the July 2021 OECD Secretary-General Tax Report to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors for their […]
A Couple of More Thoughts on “Hiding in Plain Sight? Changes to “Transfer Pricing” and the GAAR"
I do not know what “good form” is for commenting on one’s own blog post. But it does strike me that some elaboration may be helpful on the suggestion in that blog, to infuse the Canadian GAAR (and its sentiments applied in transfer pricing) with a statutory reflection of the United Kingdom GAAR’s explicit […]
Hiding in Plain Sight? Changes to “Transfer Pricing” and the GAAR
Abstract Drawing on comparative references to transfer pricing legislation in the United Kingdom and Australia and on the legislative “General Anti-Avoidance Rule” in the United Kingdom, these comments probe to identify and suggest responses to the underlying “problem” that pervades transfer pricing and Canadian GAAR jurisprudence but is, it seems, either thought or thought […]
Richard Bird - Remembering a Canadian Taxation Giant
Richard Bird passed away suddenly on Wednesday June 9, 2021. It's hard to imagine. He has been in my professional consciousness for as long as I've had one and our collective consciousness for much longer as a leader in taxation and public finance, in Canada certainly but also in the world. There are few […]