The Political Economy of Corporation Tax

Excellent technical writing on corporation tax abounds, but it tends to be inaccessible to public lawyers, political theorists and political economists. Although recent years have seen not only an explosion in public law scholarship but also a reawakening of interest in interpretative political theory and political economy, the potential of these perspectives to illuminate the corporation tax debate has remained unexplored. In this important work, John Snape seeks to reconcile these disparate strands of scholarship and to contribute to a new way of understanding and conceptualising the reform of the law relating to corporate taxation. Drawing on important developments in public law scholarship, the study combines elements of political theory and political economy. It advances a new interpretation of corporation tax law as an instrument of rule, through the maximisation of a nation's economic potential. Snape shows how corporate taxation belongs at the centre of any discussion of economic globalisation, not only because of the potential of national tax systems to influence inward investment decisions but also because of the potential of those decisions to shape the public interest that those tax systems might embody. Following public law and politics models, the book looks afresh at the impact of Britain's political institutions, of the processes of its representative government and of the theory that moulds and orders the values that the corporation tax code contains. This is a timely exploration of cutting-edge issues of public policy.

Autorentext

John Snape is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, UK.

Inhalt

1. Introduction
   I. The Senses of 'Political Economy'
   II. First Thoughts on Theory and Values
   III. Corporate Tax Law and its Reform
   
   2. A Theory of Corporate Tax Reform
      I. Tensions and Conventions in Corporate Taxation
      II. Technique and Prudence
      III. Corporation Tax Law as Public Law
      IV. The Outlines of the Interpretation
   3. The Reformers
      I. Institutions, Objectives, Functions
      II. Governance and Corporation Tax Reform
      III. The Corporate Sector and the Government
      IV. Parliament
      V. The Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs
      VI. Policy Networks
      VII. The Judiciary
      VIII. Some Interim Observations
   4. The Process of Reform
      I. Processes and Interactions
      II. The Political Dimension of Corporation Tax Reform
      III. The Public, or National, Interest in Corporate Tax Reform
      IV. Published Material on the Reform Process
      V. Initiating Reform Measures
      VI. Developing the Measures
      VII. Presentation of Reform Measures
      VIII. Delivery of the Measures
      IX. Some Connections
   5. The Evolving Corporation Tax Base
      I. Economics, Realism and Politics
      II. Further Implications of Corporation Tax as Public Law
      III. Complexity and Instability in the Corporation Tax Code
      IV. The Prioritisation of Political Values in the Corporation Tax Code
      V. Concluding Comments
   6. Conclusions
      I. Values and Theory Revisited
      II. Working Together
      III. The Virtuosity of Prudent Corporate Tax Reform
      IV. Corporation Tax as Political Jurisprudence