General Anti-avoidance Rules: The final tax frontier?

Aggressive practices of taxpayers continuously test the tolerance limits of judicial systems, which seek to accord them greater latitude to balance their rights against tax as a manifestation of the sovereign’s entitlement. Opponents of General Anti-Avoidance Rules, or GAAR, have argued that a statutory rule is not required since a judicial approach is sufficient safeguard against tax evasion. On the other hand, tax administrations around the world have been seeking greater empowerment and flexibility to address the scourge of tax avoidance, which often hinges upon colourable devices and complex legal structures. With increasingly complex commercial structures and new age business models, most jurisdictions have introduced their own GAAR, which permit their tax administrations to nullify artificial structures and recharacterise them to match the economic realities. Addressing complex, divergent dimensions and more, General Anti-Avoidance Rules: The Final Tax Frontier? brings together diverse reflections by leading global tax and legal experts on the subject in general and India’s General Anti-Avoidance Rules in particular. Spread over 20 jurisdictions, the essays by renowned luminaries, jurists, academicians and policymakers have been curated to address the relevant aspects of GAAR, both from an India-centric as well as a global standpoint. This treatise is a unique and unprecedented inquiry collating wide-ranging points of view which GAAR entails, intertwined with reflections on tax concepts, international customary and treaty law and policy.