Taxation Issues: Existing and Emerging

Citation

Smith, A.M.C. (2013), "Taxation Issues: Existing and Emerging", Pacific Accounting Review, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 117-118. https://doi.org/10.1108/01140581311318995

This book is the second collection of tax essays published by the School of Law at the University of Canterbury through their Centre for Commercial and Corporate Law following their first volume of tax essays “Taxation issues in the twenty‐first century” published in 2006. The editors, Andrew Maples and Adrian Sawyer, are to be congratulated for persevering in publishing this second volume which has given a panel of New Zealand tax academics and practitioners the freedom to publish on a wide range of topics relating to New Zealand taxation and public finance. The whole spectrum of tax issues are covered in this volume from policy based topics to ones relating to tax avoidance, charities and other special entities, tax administration, international tax and GST.

The editors have been again fortunate to have a senior member of the New Zealand judiciary, this time the Hon Sir William Young from the Supreme Court, to write a forward to this volume. The book is subsequently organised into five selections which loosely group the 13 essays around a theme or topic. Section 1 is titled “Sustainability and reform issues” which contains four essays the first being one by Jonathan Barrett on ethical aspects of behaviour modifying taxes such as tobacco and alcohol excises. Lisa Marriott examines the use of incentives for retirement savings in New Zealand with an interesting review of the uptake to the recently introduced Kiwisaver schemes. The remaining essays in this section include a consideration by Peter Vial of whether some permanent body should be established to oversee or monitor tax reform in New Zealand (as was recommended by the Tax Working Group in 2010) and lastly consideration by Keith Rankin of a proposal (which has regularly appeared from time to time over the last 25 years) of a “flat tax” for individuals combined with a refundable credit.

Section 2 contains three essays related to a much narrower topic, but one nevertheless highly topical, that of tax avoidance. Craig Elliffe examines the interesting question of when tax avoidance becomes a criminal offence an issue that first surfaced with the so‐called “wine‐box” inquiry in the mid‐1990s concerning arrangements by New Zealand investors in the Cook Islands. The second of the tax avoidance essays is a transcript compiled by Professor John Prebble of a colloquium held at Victoria University in 2006 where 11 experts discussed general anti‐avoidance rules in common law jurisdictions and comparable judicial rules from civil code jurisdictions which provides an interesting review of how different jurisdictions deal with the ongoing problem of taxpayers organising their affairs in an advantageous way not intended or foreseen by legislators. The third essay is a review by Mark Keating of recent tax avoidance jurisprudence in New Zealand, and although highly topical in recent times, was unfortunately written before the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Penny & Hooper being the latest word on the application of New Zealand's general anti‐avoidance provision section BG 1.

Section 3 contains two essays, one by Audrey Sharp examining the history of how Maori authorities are taxed presenting facts which may not be widely known about some of the tax issues faced by Maori entities and the second an essay discussing difficulties of a different kind whether an economic development corporation can be a charity under New Zealand law building on earlier research the author, Michael Gousmett, did for his PhD.

The final two sections contain a total of four essays. Lin Mei Tan's doctoral research has resulted in an interesting essay on how tax practitioners cope with client's demands and expectations for tax minimisation while Shelley Griffiths examines the issue of whether tax law can be considered public law. The final two essays include one from David Dunbar on mutual recognition of imputation credits between Australia and New Zealand, an issue which has attracted little attention since some tentative steps were taken back in 2003, but one where some further reform seems possible in a different political environment. The final essay is from Eugen Trombitas who writes on a highly specialised topic of whether there is a “supply” for GST purposes (and hence GST is payable) on so‐called “out of scope transactions” raising some interesting issues which are probably not widely appreciated by non‐GST researchers.

If pushed to identify one essay that stands out, it must be Shelley Griffith's essay on whether tax law can be considered public law. It is interesting that this essay also is the one that drew the most attention from Sir William Young in his forward to this volume. Shelly presents a compelling chapter which touches on an issue which has long troubled me of why should taxpayers not be accorded similar rights that individuals have in constitutional and administrative law.

All in all, the editors have brought together an interesting volume of 13 essays which indirectly provides evidence of the robust research and scholarship taking place in New Zealand's universities into all aspects of New Zealand taxation. It is hoped that this work will also attract attention from politicians and policy advisers but also for anyone else this volume is interesting reading into a wide range of topical tax issues facing our country.