Edited by Victor Thuronyi, this book offers an introduction to a broad range of issues in comparative tax law and is based on comparative discussion of the tax laws of developed countries. It presents practical models and guidelines for drafting tax legislation that can be used by officials of developing and transition countries. Volume I covers general issues, some special topics, and major taxes other than income tax.

A comprehensive guide to income tax legislation, this book is the second of two volumes dealing with tax legislation from a comparative law perspective. Distilled from the IMF Legal Department's extensive experience, the book covers a wide range of issues in both domestic and international taxation. It also includes the most extensive bibliography currently available of the national tax laws of IMF member countries.

Although the details of tax law are literally endless—differing not only from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but also from day-to-day—structures and patterns exist across tax systems that can be understood with relative ease. This book, now in an updated new edition, focuses on these essential patterns. It provides an immensely useful introduction to the core common knowledge that any well-informed tax lawyer or policy maker should have about comparative tax law in our times. The busy reader will welcome the compact nature of this work, which is shorter than the first edition and can be read in a weekend if one skips footnotes. The authors elucidate the commonalities and differences across countries in areas including (much of the detail new to the second edition): • general anti-avoidance rules; • court decisions striking down tax laws as violating constitutional rules against retroactivity, unequal treatment of equals, confiscation, and undue vagueness; • statutory interpretation; • inflation adjustment rules and the allowance for corporate equity; • value added tax systems; • concepts such as “tax”, “capital gain”, “tax avoidance”, and “partnership”; • corporate-shareholder tax systems; • the relationship between tax and financial accounting; • taxation of investment income; • tax authorities’ ability to obtain and process information about taxpayers; and • systems of appeals from tax assessments. The information and analysis pull together valuable material which is scattered over a disparate literature, much of it not available in English. Especially considering the dynamic nature of tax law, whose rate of change exceeds that of any other field of law, the authors’ clear identification of the underlying patterns and fundamental structures that all tax systems have in common—as well as where the differences lie—guides the reader and offers resources for further research.

This authoritative title is a great resource for anyone working with New York State tax issues. It's also a perfect companion to CCH's Guidebook to New York Taxes. This comprehensive reference provides full text of the statute affecting New York personal income, corporate franchise (income), estate, excise, sales and use, franchise, and other NY taxes as amended by legislative action through January 1, 2008. Also included is the full text of the New York State tax laws relating to city personal income tax, income tax surcharge, and city earnings tax on nonresidents.

This comprehensive reference provides an authoritative source of essential information for those who work with personal income tax issues in New York. It is also a great companion to CCH's Guidebook to New York Taxes, reproducing full text of the New York State laws concerning personal income taxes -- Article 9A, Articles 22, 30, 30-A, 30-B, 40, and 41, as well as pertinent regulations promulgated by the NY Department of Taxation and Finance. This new edition reflects the law as amended through January 1, 2008. Key legislative changes from the previous year affecting New York State personal income taxes are described in a special Highlights section for at-a-glance review and are also incorporated in the law text. To help pinpoint information quickly and easily, this volume also provides a helpful detailed Topical Index, Law and Regulation Finding Lists, and a list of Tax Law Sections Amended in 2007.