JHA in Media

JHA consultant Simon Whitehead has edited the seventh edition of The Tax Disputes and Litigation Review and has also contributed the UK chapter to this guide. This book is published by The Law Reviews and is available online and in print.

The objective of this book is to provide tax professionals involved in disputes with revenue authorities in multiple jurisdictions with an outline of the principal issues arising in those jurisdictions. In this, the seventh edition, we have continued to add to the key jurisdictions where disputes are likely to occur for multinational businesses.

Each chapter provides an overview of the procedural rules that govern tax appeals and highlights the pitfalls of which taxpayers need to be most aware. Aspects that are particularly relevant to multinationals, such as transfer pricing, are also considered. In particular, we have asked the authors to address an area where we have always found worrying and subtle variations in approach between courts in different jurisdictions, namely the differing ways in which double tax conventions can be interpreted and applied.

The idea behind this book commenced in 2013 with the general increase in litigation as tax authorities in a number of jurisdictions took a more aggressive approach to the collection of tax, in response, no doubt, to political pressure to address tax avoidance. In the United Kingdom alone we have seen the tax authority vested with broad new powers not only of disclosure but even to require tax to be paid in advance of any determination by a court that it is due. The provisions empower the revenue authority, an administrative body, to compel payment of a sum, the subject of a genuine dispute, without any form of judicial control or appeal.

Over the past year, the focus on perceived cross-border abuses has continued with European Commission decisions against past tax rulings in Belgium, Ireland and Luxembourg, and the BEPS Project reaching a crescendo in the announcement of a 'diverted profits tax' to impose an additional tax in the United Kingdom when it is felt that a multinational is subject to too little corporation tax even in an EU context and a digital services tax in the United Kingdom introducing provisions that appear in principle to pre-empt the Commission's action in the area. The general targeting of cross-border tax avoidance now has European legislation behind it with the passage last year of the second Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive. The absence of much previous European legislation in direct tax has always been put down to the need for unanimity and the way in which Member States closely guard their taxing rights. The relatively speedy passage of this legislation (the Parent–Subsidiary Directive before it took some 10 years to pass) and its restriction of attractive tax regimes indicates the general political disrepute with which such practices are now viewed.

These are, perhaps, extreme examples, reflective of the parliamentary cycle, yet a general toughening of stance seems to be felt. In that light, this book provides an overview of each jurisdiction's anti-avoidance rules and any alternative mechanisms for resolving tax disputes, such as mediation, arbitration or restitution claims.

We have attempted to give readers a flavour of the tax litigation landscape in each jurisdiction. The authors have looked to the future and have summarised the policies and approaches of the revenue authorities regarding contentious matters, addressing important questions such as how long cases take and situations in which some form of settlement might be available.

We have been lucky to obtain contributions from the leading tax litigation practitioners in their jurisdictions. Many of the authors are members of the EU Tax Group, a collection of independent law firms, of which we are a member, involved particularly in challenges to the compatibility of national tax laws with EU and EEA rights. We hope that you will find this book informative and useful.

Read the book online here and find the UK chapter here.