2025

This article argues that the long-dominant principle of economic allegiance is no longer adequate as the foundation for international tax jurisdiction amid reforms that expand nexus and fragment taxing authority. Once a limiting concept, nexus now generates overlapping claims as both source and residence rights broaden, transforming tax jurisdiction into shared authority. The central issue, therefore, is not whether a state has jurisdiction but how to allocate jurisdictional fragments fairly. The article contends that fairness, specifically, inter-nation equity, must guide this allocation, as the economic allegiance principle provides no standard for distribution. It shows that current reforms rely on arbitrary formulas and ordering rules that disproportionately favor wealthier states and calls for international tax policy to place explicit distributional fairness at the center of its design.

Ozai, Ivan, Beyond Economic Allegiance (October 24, 2025). University of Toronto Law Journal (2025), volume 75, issue 4, pp. 425-65.

This paper analyzes survey-based evidence on the effects of the global minimum tax (GMT) on German multinational enterprises (MNEs). The results show that most German MNEs are only marginally affected by top-up taxes. When such taxes do apply, they often do not target firms with the lowest effective tax rates or those operating in low-tax jurisdictions, raising questions about the GMT’s effectiveness in curbing profit shifting. At the same time, implementation imposes significant compliance burdens on firms regardless of actual top-up tax liability. The study also finds that the Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR) safe harbour can be widely applied in the first year, proving to be an effective tool for simplification.

This article introduces the concept of “intangible tariffs” to describe Digital Services Taxes (DSTs), arguing that they operate less as domestic tax measures and more as de facto trade restrictions that selectively burden foreign digital firms. By reclassifying DSTs as intangible tariffs, the article reframes them as trade instruments that could restore coherence between tax and trade law. This approach would allow the World Trade Organization to regain relevance in governing digital commerce, provide the United States with a multilateral avenue to challenge discriminatory measures, and offer other countries a legitimate framework to assert digital taxing rights.

Narotzki, Doron, A Tax in Form, a Tariff in Function: Reclassifying Digital Services Taxes to Restore Trade Law Coherence (October 31, 2025). 45 Va. Tax Rev. 53 (2025).

This essay uses Pokémon Go as a case study to expose how digital innovation can generate vast untaxed wealth in the modern economy. It argues that beneath Niantic’s hit augmented reality game lies a dual business model: one built on taxable gaming revenues and another on untaxed data-derived intangibles. As players captured virtual Pokémon, they unknowingly helped build a billion-dollar AI mapping infrastructure: an intangible asset that escaped traditional taxation. The essay explores how this phenomenon reveals fundamental flaws in current tax principles, including valuation challenges for user-generated data, jurisdictional uncertainty for borderless digital assets, and the inadequacy of the realization principle for intangible wealth that may never be formally monetized. The essay calls for a new fiscal framework capable of capturing data- and AI-driven income.

104 Tex. L. Rev. ___ (2026) (forthcoming)

This paper analyzes the temporary energy tax reduction introduced by the German government from June to September 2022. Using pricing and quantity data from the wholesale markets for crude oil, gasoline, and diesel, the study finds that 80–85% of the tax cut was passed through to consumers, corresponding to a 3.7-cent-per-liter increase in wholesale prices net of tax. However, the pass-through varied substantially across time and regions. When weighted by sales volumes, the effective pass-through falls to roughly 70% for gasoline and 58% for diesel, indicating that refinery margins widened significantly during periods of higher demand. These findings highlight how temporary tax cuts can yield uneven and incomplete price transmission in energy markets.

This paper analyzes the constitutional and statutory issues raised by President Trump’s 2025 tariff actions, now before the Supreme Court in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump. The authors argue that although the Origination Clause does not directly constrain the President’s tariff powers, it is crucial for interpreting whether a statute authorizes revenue-raising measures. The authors conclude that IEEPA cannot lawfully authorize the President’s tariff actions, underscoring Congress’s primary constitutional role in taxation and trade policy.

This is the Central Report, subject 2 of the IFA 2025 Annual Congress. It is a comprehensive review of 43 national reports, EU developments, landmark cases, and academic commentary, on the topic of treaty shopping and treaty anti-abuse developments. The report predicts that the principal purpose test will play an increasingly central role in harmonizing anti-abuse standards globally, though its practical application will remain uneven.

This essay extends the concept of taxing artificial intelligence (AI) firms through equity rather than cash to the international context, proposing a framework under which non-U.S. jurisdictions could require a one-time equity payment from AI firms seeking to sell services within their borders. It challenges the entrenched assumption that taxes must be paid in cash, suggesting that accepting alternative forms of property (e.g., equity) could strengthen both domestic and cross-border taxation in the digital economy.

This article argues that while deglobalisation is often seen as a threat to international taxation by reducing capital mobility, increasing tariff reliance, and pressuring governments to raise domestic taxes, moderate economic fragmentation may actually enhance global tax cooperation. By weakening the dominance of traditional governance structures and fostering a more pluralistic international environment, such fragmentation could empower the emerging UN Framework Tax Convention as a credible alternative to existing OECD-led approaches. The article suggests that measured fragmentation enables the design of tax coordination mechanisms better aligned with a regionalised global economy, promoting more adaptable and realistic frameworks for international tax governance.

This paper examines the fiscal and economic consequences of the Trump administration’s 2025 policy shift, which paired sweeping tariff hikes with major income tax cuts. It shows that while maintaining tariffs at summer 2025 levels would yield substantial government revenue, the efficiency costs would amount to nearly one-third of those revenues, the overall tax system would become less progressive, and enforcement challenges would intensify. Macroeconomically, broad tariffs act as a severe negative supply shock, fueling inflation while depressing economic activity—outcomes that run counter to the policy’s stated goals.

This article critically assesses the Global Minimum Tax, agreed upon by more than 140 countries and hailed as the most important reform of international business taxation in a century. While recognizing the political and technical achievement, it argues that the reform’s impact is mixed and that the international tax system remains fundamentally weak. The analysis attributes this to the policy itself rather than to flaws in implementation, emphasizing that layering a minimum tax onto the existing origin-based framework leaves intact the system’s incentive incompatibilities and destabilizing forces. By reinforcing this flawed foundation, the Global Minimum Tax not only limits its own effectiveness but also makes it harder to pursue alternative reforms that would break from the origin-based model. The article concludes that despite the celebrated breakthrough, the system continues to perform poorly and that more radical reform options are being sidelined.