Tax Treaty Interpretation: Challenges in a Post-BEPS Multilateral World (eBook)

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Tax Treaty Interpretation is a nonpareil book authored by an internationally known tax law practitioner and scholar who draws on decades of knowledge-gathering to present a deeply evolved general theory of tax treaty interpretation, discussing in detail the starting points and elements of interpretation that should be considered by all stakeholders in the field of international taxation. The rules embedded in such treaties cannot be applied without interpretation considering that the normative concepts referred to in tax treaties are susceptible to contextual variation.

The meticulous and precise commentary sheds light on the established principles that apply to the interpretation of tax treaties, including the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the OECD and UN Model Conventions. The author successfully presents a detailed investigation of the implications for tax treaty interpretation of the following topics and issues:

• essential concepts such as “context” and “qualification”;
• evolution of international taxation from bilateralism to multilateralism;
• specific interpretation issues raised by bilateral tax treaties;
• economic crises as drivers for changes in international taxation rules;
• the OECD/G-20 BEPS project;
• digitalization of the economy;
• pandemic, war, and deglobalization;
• interpretation of international treaties versus interpretation of domestic laws; and
• interpretation of double tax conventions in countries that are not OECD members.

Absent a declaration of international tax principles, this unique book furnishes a thorough analysis of the theory of interpretation of international tax treaties—given the risks of interpreting treaties with different jurisdictions and different languages—and will guarantee an appropriate understanding of the current context of international taxation, bringing practitioners and policymakers abreast with a background that will steer them through the interpretation of any international tax treaty.