| Tax avoidance and the Law

This course is an advanced course on taxation that analyses important aspects of tax law and current commercial practice: the importance of tax planning in commercial transactions and the manner in which the law regulates tax planning and tax avoidance.

The course will consist of case law and statutory law from important common law jurisdictions (United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and South Africa, along with India)

The pedagogical method employed will be a seminar style discussion. Students will be expected to submit response papers.

The course will adopt a comparative approach to the issue of tax avoidance: Indian law will be analysed by comparing it with other jurisdictions.

Course Objectives 

The students will :

1. Develop an understanding of the basic principles relating to tax planning and avoidance and more generally, the role of tax considerations in commercial practice.
2. Learn to review complex tax driven commercial relationships and advise on the limits of legitimate tax planning.
3. Develop the capacity to think like a transactional lawyer who brings together tax and commercial considerations.
4. Learn to understand and comment on tax policy issues relating to tax avoidance.