Nicola Sartori

Tax is an important part of the business environment. With the growth in globalization and the expansion of cross border flow of investments, tax plays a major role in the decision making process. Therefore, the ability to accommodate the distinctions of various tax systems around the globe and to understand the policy considerations behind them is what this course is aimed at.

This course offers a comparative analysis of various solutions that were adopted by several tax systems as a response to increasing common tax problems of their income tax systems. First, the common core of tax systems of industrialized countries in relation to basic tax problems will be identified. Second, different tax models (and their circulation) among different countries will be analyzed. Finally, a closer look at the US and Italian tax mechanisms for the resolution of the tax problems discussed earlier in the course will be taken.

In the first part of the course, the theory and methods of comparative taxation (tax models, formants and common core in tax law) will be illustrated and the economic principles of taxation (efficiency, vertical and horizontal equity, simplicity) will be described so to critically analyze tax policy issues and compare different tax designs.

Some of the specific issues and topics that will be covered in a comparative way during the course are: Definition, history and reasons of tax law; Progressive versus proportional tax systems; Ability-to-pay principle and new trade-off between efficiency and equity as a new way to introduce equity into models of tax analysis; Tax legislative process, constitutional limitations, power to make tax laws (distribution of tax-law- making power between the legislative and executive branches of government and division of tax powers between central and local governments); Tax procedure and litigation (regulations and rulings, tax returns and record keeping, audits, dispute settlement, recovery, refunds, penalties, litigation); Prevention of tax avoidance and evasion: enforcement tools; Definition of tax: income versus consumption taxes; Definition of taxable income: global versus schedular system and source versus accretion concept of income; Role of business in tax law: why tax corporations? Who bears the corporate tax? What is the relationship between corporate and individual level of taxes? International tax regime: international tax as international law (the benefit principle and the single tax principle); Principles of international taxation: taxation of multinationals and cross border investments; Use of tax law for delivering social policies.

Nicola Sartori: Post-Doctoral Fellow
Italian nationality, Phd Bocconi University. He is currently completing his Doctorate in Taxation at the University of Michigan.