Containing Tax Avoidance : Anti-Avoidance Strategies

The principal objective of the chapter is to identify, examine and evaluate some of the key trends in the responses that national governments and international organisations are currently making to the problems of tax avoidance. The conclusion is that national tax authorities, international tax organisations, and national and supranational legislatures and judiciaries, have at their disposal a large range of anti-avoidance strategies that are designed to deal, and are generally capable of dealing, with the onslaught of these so-called fiscal and moral termites. Moreover, there is some evidence that the battle being waged against widespread tax avoidance is tilting in favour of the defenders of the fisc. But while perhaps there is no need for fiscal or moral panic, there is no room for complacency either