Expertise

Corporate Tax Law
Company Law
Corporate Finance Law
 

Overview

John Vella is a Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation and a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford.

John first studied law at the University of Malta, obtaining a BA and an LLD. He was admitted to the Maltese bar and practiced briefly. He then obtained an LLM and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Following the completion of his PhD he joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford as Norton Rose Career Development Fellow in Company Law where he taught Company Law, Corporate Finance Law, EC Law and Roman Law. He has been a Program Affiliate Scholar at New York University and has acted as a co-arbitrator in a tax dispute before the ICC International Court of Arbitration. His main research interests are in Corporate Taxation, Company Law and Corporate Finance Law, particularly avoidance and the impact of tax on corporate behaviour.

Research interests

John’s research to date has been on tax avoidance, (including judicial doctrines dealing with avoidance as well as more innovative administrative and legislative approaches); tax risk and tax risk management; substance and form in tax, corporate and financial law; sham transactions; and the UK maintenance of capital regime.

His current research is on the rule of law implications of new approaches to corporate tax risk and tax avoidance and on the effect of taxation on financing policy of various companies.

Research project 1
‘The rule of law implications of new approaches to corporate tax risk and tax avoidance’ (with J Freedman and G Loomer) 
The authors carried out two empirical studies on new approaches  adopted by HMRC to enhance their relationship with corporate taxpayers and to deal with tax risk and avoidance. Theses approaches include the Risk Rating Approach, Targeted Anti-Avoidance Rules, and Principles Based Legislation. The findings of these studies were presented and analyzed in a number of publications. In this project the authors identify and consider the serious rule of law implications raised by these approaches.

Research project 2
‘The effect of taxation on financing policy of various companies’

Book chapters

J Vella, ‘The impact of the Centros line of case-law and its concept of abuse of law on domestic company law – a response’ in R De la Feria and S Vogenauer (eds), Prohibition of Abuse of Law: A New General Principle of EU Law, Hart Publishing, (forthcoming 2009)

J Vella, J Freedman and G Loomer, ‘Analyzing the enhanced relationship between corporate taxpayers and revenue authorities: a UK case study’, 2009 Internal Revenue Service Bulletin (forthcoming 2009)

J Vella and D Prentice, ‘Some aspects of capital maintenance law in the UK’ in M Tison et al (ed), Essays in honour of Eddy Wymeersch - Perspectives in Company Law and Financial Regulation, CUP, (2009)

J Vella, J Freedman and G Loomer, ‘Moving Beyond Avoidance? Tax Risk and the Relationship between large Business and HMRC’ in J Freedman (ed), Beyond Boundaries: Developing Approaches to Tax Avoidance and Tax Risk Management, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, (2008)

Journal articles

J Vella, J Freedman and G Loomer, ‘Corporate Tax Risk and Tax Avoidance: New Approaches’, (2009) British Tax Review, 74-116.

J Vella, ‘Sham Transactions’, Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly (2008), 4 (Nov), 488-512

J Vella, ‘Departing from the legal substance of transactions in the corporate field: the Ramsay Approach beyond the tax sphere’, (2007) 7(2) Journal of Corporate Law Studies, 243-283

Working papers

J Vella, J Freedman and G Loomer, ‘Moving Beyond Avoidance? Tax Risk and the Relationship between Large Business and HMRC’, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation Report, June 2007 (Cited in the New York Review of Books, January 15 2009)

Unpublished work

J Vella, ‘Structured Finance in Malta’, (2001) (approx. 65,000 words). Unpublished document on file with the University of Malta. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the Doctor of Laws degree.