Diamond Graduate School of Law

LL.M. Program

Syllabus for International Tax Planning - Professor Roy Rohatgi - been with the program since 1995.

SUMMER Semester only – 16 weeks and an exam week

Second week June until last week September   

Prerequisites - Principles, Treaties, Anti-Avoidance and Offshore Financial Centers.  Exceptions only made if 7 years and over practical experience / senior manager level in tax department.

I.          COURSE DESCRIPTION  

International Tax Planning (3 cr. Summer only):  There are nine modules in the course - including many individual and group case study assignments given over the weeks. The course is based on extensive application of your collective knowledge obtained in this program to several client based case studies. Students will be required to do desk research of the tax systems and rules in various countries in finding solutions to them. The course makes extensive use of case studies to provide practical insights into international tax.  The course will introduce you to the general techniques of international tax planning. It will also expose you to various factors, which are taken into account in structuring different type of international operations and transactions, through case study materials. However, as international tax planning is an art there are no perfect answers. As they say: "it all depends" on the facts and circumstances, the tax rules and practices in the concerned jurisdictions, and the business or commercial objective and the risk-taking capacity of the taxpayer.  This course is taught by Roy Rohatgi, retired as the founding managing partner of Arthur Andersen, India; international partner South Asia; and national partner, United Kingdom.  Required prerequisites are Principles of International taxation; Tax Treaties; Anti-Avoidance; and Offshore Financial Centers.

from Roy Rohatgi...Welcome to the sixteen-week intensive course in International Tax Planning. There are nine modules in the course - including many individual and group case study assignments given over the weeks. The course is based on extensive reading of text material and several case studies. Students will be required to do desk research of the tax systems and rules in various countries in finding solutions to them. The course makes extensive use of case studies to provide practical insights into international tax planning.

Most of the reading material on the subject comes from my new book on "Basic International Taxation." There is a specific chapter on this topic (Chapter 7). However, the reading assignments also cover chapters on Domestic Tax Systems (Chapter 4), Offshore Financial Centres (Chapter 5) and Anti-avoidance (Chapter 6). Besides general tax planning, the later modules cover taxation of electronic commerce (Chapter 8(1)) and taxation of expatriate personnel (Chapter 7(4)). Some of the reading material may duplicate previous courses you have taken in this degree program. I hope it will be good revision for you in such cases and the various country examples in the chapters would broaden your knowledge and understanding. It should help you to get a better understanding of the principles. My teaching experience has shown that when teaching a complex subject it takes three repetitions to understand and six to remember!

For all the students in this class, this is probably one of the last courses in the entire degree program. I have, therefore, assumed that all the students have completed their four compulsory courses (namely Principles in International Taxation, Double Tax Treaties, Offshore Financial Centres and Anti-avoidance). These courses gave you the foundation of international taxation. My course uses this knowledge to plan cross-border transactions in a tax-efficient manner. I would, therefore, suggest that you spend some time to look through your notes of the previous courses and refresh your memory.

For a lot of you, the art of international tax planning is the ultimate aim of this degree program. At the end of this course, you wish to be familiar with the various principles and techniques. The reading assignment supplemented by the case studies should help you to understand and apply them. A course of nine modules cannot make you an expert international tax planner. It can teach you the basics. The rest comes from working on actual tax situations and with experience over time. Each tax planner has his own individual likes and dislikes that dictate his choice of techniques. A perfect analogy would be a painting. This course can teach you the painting techniques and the use of the various colours, but the composition depends on the talent and inspiration of the painter. The course can only give a broad general framework.

The course will introduce you to the general techniques of international tax planning. It will also expose you to various factors, which are taken into account in structuring different type of international operations and transactions, through case study materials. However, as international tax planning is an art there are no perfect answers. As they say: "it all depends" on the facts and circumstances, the tax rules and practices in the concerned jurisdictions, and the business or commercial objective and the risk-taking capacity of the taxpayer. To apply to specific situations, you need to become familiar with the domestic tax systems in various countries involved and the tax treaties, and the non-tax factors. The domestic laws and practices in different countries affect tax planning. What may apply in one country may not be acceptable in another country. You have to create your tax planning solution. As mentioned, there is no single solution. It all depends!

II.         PURPOSE

            At the end of this course, you will be able to

· Understand the role of international tax planning.

· Explain the basic techniques and structures of international tax planning and how they are applied.

· Identify and analyse different international tax issues in a range of cross-border transactions

· Understand the role of both tax and non-tax factors that affect international tax planning.

· Review a methodology for tax planning and develop your own tax planning approach.

· Be familiar with the various sources of tax information (both domestic and foreign) and understand the need to build a network with tax planners in other countries.

· Understand that international tax planning requires the knowledge of the domestic tax systems and tax treaties of the countries involved. This course can only provide the general principles, which the tax planner must adapt to specific circumstances.

· Appreciate that learning international tax planning is a destination, which has no end! All tax planners spend their lifetime trying to improve their knowledge and expertise but can never claim that they know it all!

· This course can only give you the fundamentals of international tax planning, like a good cookbook. As a tax planner, you have to prepare the meal, which suits the tastes and appetites of those who have to eat it!

· Discover that nine-week course is too short to become an expert international tax planner. Even a lifetime may not be enough.

· In international tax planning, one deals with informed choices and business risks. Usually, there is no single or ideal answer. You do not have to agree with my conclusions!

• 3 credits
• required course for concentration in International Tax
• prerequisites : Principles, Treaties, Anti-avoidance as well as Offshore.

III.        COURSE PROCEDURE

            Since most of you should have covered the basic principles in the previous courses, the lecture notes are meant to refresh your memory and lead you into a topic. Each module has assigned text material for you to read and study. In addition, there are additional questions to answer or case studies for you to complete.

As in real professional life, many of the assignments would require you to research the tax laws and practices in specific foreign countries. I have presumed that all of you are now familiar with the various techniques used to research for tax data through websites and databases. Your course includes access to External Links. A good starting point for country tax data may be the country examples in my book, Basic International Taxation, and the suggested reading references and footnoted articles there. You may also contact by email or fax your professional contacts (if any) in the relevant foreign jurisdictions to obtain or confirm their country tax data. (Professional networking of this kind is very important (and common) as an international tax practitioner.)

The planning issues and techniques are covered in the reading assignments and specific questions and case studies. To ensure that you have read and understood them, I would require each student to study the assigned text material and post his comments in the classroom for discussion. I would use the quality (and quantity) of the comments (or "planning insights") for grading purposes. They will account for 50% of the marks awarded to the student at the end of the course. The remaining 50% would be based on specific assignments and case studies during the course.

I propose to encourage "shared learning" within the class. The assignments and case studies must be done initially by each student after completion on the reading assignment/s. Each student should attempt the questions and case studies individually for the time specified (one or two weeks) and send their suggested solutions to me by email or file (use digital drop box) for my information and comments (if any). The solutions should list the sources (e.g. websites, books, etc.) which you have consulted or used to arrive at your conclusions. The individual solutions will be shared within study groups.

I will divide the class into several study groups or teams of 4 to 6 students. They will be required to present a joint solution to the class for discussion. At this stage, you are also free to consult with non-students. We will then attempt to arrive at a consensus solution for the class as a whole. Because their are no deadlines, I will keep the discussion forums on each case study open until the end of the course.

This approach should help all the students to get a better understanding of the planning issues based on the knowledge of the class derived from past experiences, research and contacts. There are no model solutions. The answers vary with the knowledge and imagination of the planner and the countries involved. As I mentioned earlier I do not have all the answers!

There will be no formal examination at the end of the course. (however, see Course Changes below)
Thus, participation grades are based on:

(a) Timely submission and quality of the assignments and participation in the group and class solutions: - 50%

Marks will also be given for the quality of research done in arriving at your conclusions to the case studies. You should mention the sources used by you in the discussion forum for the case study. This approach would enable all the class students to share in your research for the case study (and the future).

(b) Demonstration of preparation through weekly discussion of topics, problems or issues in the cyber class:- 50%

Participation in the classroom will be assessed by
- Evaluating your "informed" responses to the case studies and solutions.
- Constructive comments and responses to other students' comments and questions and analysis of problems. Thus, it is based on your discussion, commentary and other participation.

As mentioned above, the course grading will depend on the assignments and the quality of participation in the classroom. As of now, I do not propose to have a formal examination at the end of the course.

 IV.        ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION

This online course requires attendance which is measured by (1) the modular-weekly interactive participation opportunities in the classroom, (2) mandatory weekly participation through being called upon to address the class for certain modules as well as (3) modular study guide assignments.  Missing mandatory weekly participation assignments is the equivalent of being not prepared in class and will result in a zero for that assignment.   Not turning in study guide assignments will result in a zero for that assignment.

  V.         EVALUATION OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE

            The course is on planning and not on principles. It is not easy to teach planning except through practice. The questions can deal with principles and concepts but planning requires us to put the principles to practice. I believe we need to move gradually from questions to case studies. The more case studies you get involved in personally the more planning experience and confidence you will get.

A lot depends on what you want to get out of the course. I discussed this issue with Prof Byrnes as Academic Director last night. He reckons that one should expect around 15 hours of study time from the students every week. He also mentioned that the objective of the course should be to enable the students to practice independently as international tax planners after finishing the course. If that is the case, then we need to concentrate on the planning aspects that puts your entire learning in the LL M Program to use.

Therefore, I propose the following approach for the rest of the course.

(i) Students should spent more than 50% (even 75%) of their time on case studies (at least 5 to 7 hours every week). The text reading can be made optional except for the case study readings. I shall mark the essential reading in the course information. I would however, recommend that each student scan through the reading material and follow up on any new material or topics with which they are not familiar. They can then read them later as reference material. (The reading would be essential for students who have not yet attended the four basic courses to follow this course).

(ii) I shall split the case studies into those which should be done individually by each student (and email the answers to me) and then put into the class for comments and discussion. They can also take longer time on it. There will also be certain case studies which require a group solution. I shall divide the class into four groups of five students each to discuss among themselves in separate discussion forums and send me a group solution. They can thus share the work load by mutual agreement. Again the group solution will be put in the class for feedback from me and other students.

(iii) From a learning perspective it does not matter to me if you have access to solutions and comments given by other students on the discussion board. However, as mature students I would not expect any one to just copy from others; they can definitely learn from them and and improve on them. In real life, we are constantly sharing knowledge and learning from others. Complex tax planning is done by a team of professionals and all planning is subject to review by others within a professional firm.

VI.        REQUIRED TEXTS

Electronic texts edited and authored by the Instructor, supplemented by reference materials.  Reference materials will include source materials and secondary materials.

VII.       REFERENCE MATERIAL

Research is conducted using the Internet WWW as well as, and most importantly, value added databases, such as

• Lexis-Nexis US and foreign materials; Tax Treaties

• BNA US and foreign materials; especially the country by country tax materials

• BNA International

• CCH International databases jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and its global treatises

• CCH USA databases

• Butterworths UK and international materials, especially Commonwealth/Caribbean case law

• QuickLaw, especially Canadian and Commonwealth/Caribbean case law

• Checkpoint-RIA-WGL-Gee, especially the treatises that explain planning techniques by topics, such as estate planning, for jurisdictions

• Westlaw US and foreign materials

• Tax Analysts, especially its superior tax treaty database, foreign law and global tax update magazines

• Foreign Law Publishers - all foreign statues in English

• World Compliance database

• LLM and PhD thesis and dissertation databases

• historical tax research using databases such as Hein and CCH

• Matthew Bender databases

• Lois Law e-libraries

• amongst other databases that we subscribe to for you (see the external links in the classroom for details).

Also, the student should use the electronic book libraries and research the titles available.  Finally, the student is encouraged to use online legal research resources or university library or another library through a University library exchange program.