Philosophical re-thinking of international tax law: an analysis of harmful tax competition

Abstract

This study aims to re-think the harmful tax competition philosophically and through which to open a new route for further studies. With this aim, harmful tax competition is examined from epistemological, theoretical and methodological perspectives. As a result of this study, it is contended that the OECD failed to justify the assumption that tax competition under specified circumstances is regarded as “harmful” around the world in the same way and it harms global welfare. By doing this, the OECD does not take into account that the meaning of harmful tax competition can be constructed differently by different societies. In fact, based on the different meanings of construction, the same kind of tax competition may be regarded as “beneficial” by some states and “harmful” by others. Therefore, to understand the challenges on the definition of harmful tax competition and solve them, more philosophical analysis is needed.