Fairness and International Taxation: Star-Crossed Lovers?

Abstract

This article demonstrates that despite its importance as a normative criterion for the international tax system, it is difficult to apply the standard of fairness for several reasons, including the lack of a general accepted definition thereof. Moreover, additional difficulties arise due to the nature of the tax system at both the national and international level. These difficulties are illustrated by benchmarking the recent developments at the international level against the normative criterion of fairness under several interpretations of this criterion.