Handbook

This course is an elective in the MTax.  The course provides students with a comparative overview of tax systems around the world, with a view to developing a conceptual and practical understanding of the reasons why tax systems differ (and why they are sometimes so similar). The objectives of the course are to help students understand the characteristics that tax systems have in common, the areas in which tax systems differ, and the factors (legal, institutional, political, economic, social and cultural) that cause the similarities and differences. The course compares tax systems around the world by reference to their tax structures, the taxes they impose at different government levels, the different types of taxes and tax bases they use, tax administrative practices, and their processes of tax policy making and reform. This course allows you to undertake research on the tax system of a country of your choosing (subject to some restrictions) thereby enabling you to gain a more in-depth understanding of a tax system you are interested in whilst comparing its essential features to other global tax systems.

The major topics covered, in a comparative fashion, in this course are: tax structures/tax mix; tax families; tax expenditures; taxes at different levels of government (tax assignment); tax differences in developed and developing countries; key tax bases (income, consumption and capital/wealth) and how they are used/not used in differing tax systems; tax system complexity; tax compliance; and tax reform processes and future tax system developments.