Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Let a hundred schools of thought contend

Reuven Avi-Yonah has posted a very brief review of my international tax book in which he states his disagreement with it, and his continued adherence to views that I criticize in the book.  That's certainly fine - how boring it would be if everyone agreed, and I was no more surprised to learn that he still disagrees with me than he will be to learn that I still disagree with him.

To be very picky, I should note that I do in fact extensively discuss in the book the well-known international tax policy welfare norm of "national neutrality," which he appears to say that I don't discuss.  More importantly, I do not agree with his central argument, which is that, in opposing foreign tax creditability, I ostensibly ignore the fact that "no country is an island."  To the contrary, I'd say that it's largely because no country is an island that unreciprocated foreign tax creditability is an ill-conceived national policy.

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