Who Invented the Single Tax Principle? An Essay on the History of US Treaty Policy
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
Abstract
The first US tax treaty with France in 1932 reduced US withholding taxes at a time when France was a purely territorial jurisdiction, which meant that US source income would be taxed neither by the US nor by France. Current US and OECD treaty policy, on the other hand, is to prevent such double non-taxation by conditioning the reduction of source based taxation on the income being taxed in the state of residence. This paper traces how the “single tax principle” (income should be taxed not more or less than once) made its way into the tax treaties and became a foundational element of the international tax regime.
Recommended Citation
Avi-Yonah, Reuven S., "Who Invented the Single Tax Principle? An Essay on the History of US Treaty Policy" (2013). Public Law & Legal Theory Working Papers. 526.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/pub_law_archive/526