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News from the Centre for Business Taxation.
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Welcome to the second issue of our newsletter, which contains information on the latest activites of the Centre for Business Taxation.
This issue gives details of some of the Centre's recent research and publications, reviews our most recent events and announces forthcoming conferences.
I hope you find the newsletter a useful way of keeping up to date with the Centre's activites. More details are available in our Annual Report, which summarises the activities of the Centre between August 2010 and July 2011. The Centre's output in the year has included more than 20 published academic papers, 22 academic working papers, and a number of less technical reports and policy articles. In addition, we have organised and hosted 5 major conferences. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the annual report please contact us.
We are always happy to receive feedback: to make comments or request further information about the Centre, please contact
us at the address below. Professor Michael P. Devereux
Director, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation. |
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Highlights of new research
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Financial Transaction Tax
There have been various calls for the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax (otherwise known as a Robin Hood Tax or a Tobin Tax) in recent times. The EU Commission published a proposal for an EU-wide Financial Transaction Tax on the 28th of September 2011. John Vella, Clemens Fuest and Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr have written a paper responding to the EU Commission’s proposal.
The paper will appear in the next issue of the British Tax Review which is to be published in December.
How would EU corporate tax reform affect US investment in Europe?
In March 2011, the European Commission formally proposed the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) as a way of harmonising EU corporate taxes. The Centre’s recent research on the CCCTB, by Michael Devereux and Simon Loretz, analyses how the introduction of the CCCTB would affect investment flows from the USA to the EU. The paper pays particular attention to tax planning strategies currently employed by US multinationals, and discusses how these would be affected by the reform. The paper will be published in the NBER journal Tax Policy and the Economy.
Responsive regulation, risk, and rules: applying the theory to tax practice
This paper, by Judith Freedman, analyses the theoretical literature on responsive regulation and risk rating, with special reference to enhanced co-operation between large business and HMRC, to demonstrate the advantages and limits of these compliance tools. The analysis shows that these techniques have great value, but that a clear legal framework is necessary to protect both taxpayers and revenue authorities when using methods that involve co-operation and persuasion. The paper is forthcoming in the University of British Columbia's Law Review (2011, 44.3).
New publications
Special Issue on VAT Exemptions
A Special Issue of the International VAT Monitor (Volume 22 - Number 5 - 2011) on VAT Exemptions was published in October. Edited by Rita de la Feria and Herman van Kesteren (Tilburg University), it includes a selection of papers that were presented at a conference organised by the Centre in April 2010, in collaboration with Tilburg University, under the theme VAT Exemptions: Consequences and Design Alternatives. The papers included in this Special Issue offer an in-depth analysis of the state of current law in Europe and further afield. Other papers presented at the conference will be published in a separate edited compilation, scheduled for early 2012.
The Delicate Balance
This book, edited by Judith Freedman, Chris Evans and Rick Krever, also contains papers from a Centre-sponsored conference in Prato, Italy in September 2010. The contributions consider the critical questions that arise from the intersections of tax, discretion and the rule of law in modern common and civil law jurisdictions: What do we mean by tax discretion and how does it vary in conceptual and practical terms in different tax regimes? What role should discretion play in tax systems that operate under the rule of law and how large should that role be? What are the legal, political, institutional and other constraints that can prevent abuse of discretion? To what extent can, and should, the legislature safely delegate discretionary powers to tax administrations?
Subscribers to CBT are entitled to a 20% discount. The book can be ordered via the IBFD website. To ensure you receive the discount, the following promotional code must be entered on your order: CBT11. This offer is valid until 30 November 2011.
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20 September 2011
HMRC WORKSHOP
In September 2011, the Centre hosted a joint one-day workshop with the HMRC at the Saïd Business School to share and discuss recent research projects. Six papers were presented by analysts from the Knowledge, Analysis & Intelligence (KAI) Directorate of the HMRC and by Centre researchers.
4 October 2011
Taxing banks: the role of tax in post-crisis bank regulation
The Centre hosted a conference on the regulation and taxation of banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Different tax and regulatory options proposed post-crisis were discussed during the conference by leading experts from the two fields. As expected, the debate on these options was lively. Beyond that, a strong message to come out of the conference was that the two instruments should not be considered in isolation. Since they can and are being used to achieve the same objectives, expertise in both fields is required to avoid a partial perspective. More generally, as the taxation of banks affects their behaviour it is an issue with which regulators must engage. Speakers included Sir John Vickers (chair of the Independent Commission on Banking), Michael Keen (IMF), David Miles (Bank of England), Manfred Bergmann (European Commission) and Charles Goodhart (LSE).
27 - 28 October 2011
Inaugural doctoral meeting
Last month the Centre held its first doctoral meeting. Around 20 young scholars from UK, Europe and North America joined us for this two-day event. Twelve papers were presented, covering a wide range of important issues on the topic of Public Economics and the Firm. Each paper was formally discussed by a researcher affiliated to the Centre. The winner of the best paper award was John Gallemore from the University of North Carolina, whose paper addressd the impact of deferred tax assets on credit risk and bank failure.
Forthcoming events
8 - 9 March 2012
Structures, processes and governance in tax policy-making
The issue of how tax policy is made has become the subject of keen interest recently. For example, in June 2010 the UK Treasury published Tax policy-making: a new approach, and the topic has been subject to work in a number of other countries. During the last year, the Centre has been engaged in an international comparative study of the tax policy-making process. The report of this work, by Chris Wales and Kit Wales, will be published at a Centre conference on March 8 and 9, 2012. Confirmed speakers include representatives of governments and parliaments, business, trades unions, think tanks, and academics from 8 countries, and include David Gauke, UK Exchequer Secretary, Walter Deffaa, Director-General of TAXUD at the European Commission, Pascal Saint-Amans, the newly appointed Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD¸ Carlo Cottarelli, Direct of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF, and Andrew Tyrie, Chair of the UK Treasury Select Committee. Registration for this conference will open shortly.
20 - 22 June 2012
Trans-Atlantic Public Economics Seminar (TAPES) on Business Taxation
The Centre will co-host a prestigious academic conferencce with the US National Bureau of Economic Research in June 2012. The programme will consist of twelve academic papers on business taxation, half from the USA and half from Europe. Papers will cover a number of areas in business taxation, although most are empirical. Together with the discussants of each paper, this conference will bring together what is unquestionably a world-class group of academics to debate the frontiers of research in business taxation.
HOLD THE DATE
25 - 28 June 2012
Annual Symposium
The Centre's annual 4-day academic meeting for its international research fellows.
29 June 2012
Summer Conference
Our annual policy conference with speakers and participants from government, business, the professions and academia. |
New VAT Adviser to the Portuguese Government
In August 2011 Rita de la Feria was appointed Adviser to the Portuguese Government on VAT Policy. She will be working with the Government in the coming years to ensure that the forthcoming VAT reforms are both in line with what has been agreed under the terms of the IMF/ECB/EC bail-out agreement, signed May 2011, and also with international best practice in this area. Reforms, which will potentially include changes to the rates structure, introduction of new anti-avoidance measures and review of various other aspects of the VAT system, are aimed primarily at dealing with the budget deficit, whilst at the same time improving the national business environment and promoting competitiveness.
Helen Simpson awarded Philip Leverhulme Prize
CBT's programme director, Helen Simpson, has been awarded a £70,000 Philip Leverhulme Prize, for her research using new data on firms, which examines the reasons behind firms’ location decisions and the impact of these decisions on firm performance.
Michael Devereux elected President of the IIPF
In August, Michael Devereux, Centre Director, was elected to the position of President of the International Institute of Public Finance. He will serve as President for three years.
New doctoral theses in the Centre for Business Taxation
Jing Xing, a new CBT Research Fellow, and Geoffrey Loomer, a former CBT doctoral student and now Associate Professor at Dalhousie University in Canada, have both recently successfully completed their doctoral studies at the University of Oxford. Their theses are entitled 'Taxation, investment and growth' and 'Reformulating corporate residence: a coherent response to international tax avoidance'.
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Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation
University of Oxford, Saïd Business School, Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1HP, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1865 288904 | Fax: +44 (0)1865 288959 | cbt@sbs.ox.ac.uk | www.sbs.oxford.edu/tax |
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