A86099 Tax Law

All three sections of this course aim at providing the students belonging to different jurisdictions and various legal backgrounds (e.g. common law vs. civil law), with the same general level of understanding on domestic and international tax issues through a comparative analysis of different tax systems.

Generally speaking, tax law provisions are very much domestic oriented and quite changeable in time. Though, the Tax Law course does not intend to provide students with notional knowledge but rather with full understanding of the main principles and methodologies applied by various countries in the drafting of their tax law systems.

To this end, students will not be required to study by hearth tax technicalities of different jurisdictions. The focus of the course will be a comparative analysis of the main features of the domestic tax systems, with particular reference to the ways of drafting and interpreting tax rules.

At the end of the course students should be able:

1. to assess the main peculiarities of a tax systems;
2. to make a critical analysis of policy tax makers;
3. to design an appropriate investment structure taking into consideration tax variables and related financial and economics consequences.

The first part of the course outlines general constitutional principles and antiavoidance provisions. The second part focuses mainly on definition of taxable income and on ways of determining tax burden in the hands of individuals as well as of corporate entities.  The third part provides an overview of the basics of international tax jurisdictions and of (the relief of) juridical and economic double taxation.

The course will run under both seminar and workshop format, which requires active students’ involvement.

Participants to the classes will be supported in the analysis above through the discussion of jurisprudence and administrative cases, as well as by other practical cases and related materials.

Participation to classes is strongly recommended.

All students should pass an oral exam. For those students attending classes, grade will duly take into consideration class participation (20%).