| dc.description.abstract | This Thesis studies a new and evolving area of international tax law, namely, the international tax law of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the ‘BRICS’, and concludes that the thrust of their divergences from the developed world’s international tax law evolves from the necessity to counter the significant illicit outflow of funds while not disturbing inbound FDI or, in recent times, their outbound FDI while ensuring profits are taxed where created. The design of the divergences reflects more on the initial limited manpower capacity of their emerging tax authorities to deal with the complex international tax law issues and politically encouraged policy cooperation amongst the BRICS than it does of actual tax authority cooperation although not wishing to underestimate the importance of that cooperation.
Relevant to my conclusions are the published positions of international governance organisations and financing institutions, BRICS tax administrations, scholars and precedent, and I have used that information, both for and against, to arrive at the most rational conclusions. While economic theories may be relevant, they are not relevant to this study.
My research questions include what is the basis of the BRICS approach to core international tax law, in what way has their approach to defining evasion and avoidance been driven by the magnitude of profits shifted offshore and particularly to tax havens and whether their divergences from the developed world’s approach to countering thin capitalisation, transfer pricing and controlled foreign companies have been fashioned by the necessity for countering the elevated level of abuse. My conclusions also reflect my research on whether the divergences have been designed to counter treaty abuse affiliated with the transactions implemented by MNEs intending to shift the profits offshore or the accumulation of passive income in tax havens and, on whether were the BRICS to localise the BEPS recommendations, would their capacity to counter this abuse be improved. My research also considers whether resolving the disputation arising from the increasing level of tax authority cross border audits and investigations can be facilitated through the adoption of alternative dispute resolution procedures. I also study whether the BRICS’ response to the world’s growing information exchanging architecture reflects their elevated necessity for gathering information to be used to stem illicit flows, countering international evasion and avoidance and ensuring profits are taxed where created.
I conclude the study with recommendations for the BRICS Heads of Revenue to include in a Communique for updating their tax law and procedures which counter the abuse and assist in dispute resolution. | en_US |
