Author - Tax Polymath: A life in international taxation

Tax Polymath

A life in international taxation

Essays in honour of John F. Avery Jones

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Tax Polymath
A life in international taxation

Essays in honour of John F. Avery Jones

Edited by
Philip Baker
and
Catherine Bobbett

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Table of Contents

Part One
Tax Treaties: General Issues

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In April 2010, just in time for the start of the new tax year, Dr. John F. Avery Jones CBE was 70 years old. John has been a solicitor and senior partner of the London law firm of Speechly Bircham, a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and most recently a Special Commissioner and now judge of the Tax Tribunal. John was to have retired from the latter post at the age of 70, but his tenure was extended so that he could hear a lengthy, transfer pricing case. Meanwhile, a number of Johns colleagues and friends decided that it would only be fitting, given Johns immense contribution to tax scholarship both in relation to international tax and UK domestic tax to organise a conference in Johns honour.

The conference took place at the London School of Economics on Thursday and Friday, 22 and 23 April 2010. Over 30 contributors volunteered to give papers. Unfortunately, the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud drifting across the United Kingdom prevented aircraft from taking off and landing, and prevented some of the participants from delivering their papers in person. However, many participants made superlative efforts to be in London and with the aid of the internet and video-conferencing technology all but three of the papers were delivered in person by their authors.

The participators were drawn almost exclusively from three groups: the International Tax Group (ITG) of which John was one of the founder members; the Advisory Group on the OECD Model; and UK tax academics. Several others approached the organisers to ask if they could deliver papers but, with, more than 30 papers already promised, it was simply not possible to fit anyone else on to the programme. The organisers hope that those they had to decline many of whom were long-standing friends and colleagues of John will forgive them that it was not possible to include anyone else on the programme.

There was no specific theme to the conference, and papers reflected Johns many areas of interest, covering both international taxation and various aspects of UK domestic taxation. Many of the papers drew their inspiration from Johns academic writings or from Johns contribution as a tax judge.

Early on it became clear that there would be too many papers to publish in a single volume. In some senses this was highly fortuitous as the editors of the British Tax Review (BTR) wanted to mark Johns long association with that journal (including his period as editor) by a special issue of that journal. The conference organisers agreed to divide up the papers, for some to be published in this volume and for some to appear in a special issue of the BTR (see the list at page 383). The list of papers to be published in the BTR special issue is included in this volume and those who wish to will find the remaining conference papers there.

The editing of the papers for publication in this volume has been undertaken by Johns wife (and co-author of several articles), Catherine Bobbett. The conference was organised by Dr. Philip Baker with help from Professor Judith Freedman; Judith, as co-editor of the BTR, has worked on the special issue of the BTR and, because this involves a far larger number of papers than is normally published in one issue of the Review, Catherine Bobbett kindly agreed to act as guest editor.

The joint editors of this volume would like to thank all the contributors for their papers and those who actively participated in the conference. Above all, we would like to thank John for giving us this opportunity to collaborate together and to record his contribution to tax scholarship both in the United Kingdom and in the wider world.

Philip Baker
Catherine Bobbett
August 2010

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Once upon a time, a mathematics teacher with a penchant for philosophy explained to his high school students the paradox of acquiring knowledge: Picture all knowledge the human race can possibly acquire as a two-dimensional circle, with your own knowledge initially representing a microscopic dot in the centre of that circle rapidly expanding as you acquire more knowledge. As you learn new things, you can realize how rapidly your knowledge increases: geometrically with every bit of knowledge acquired.

But there is something else that grows: the circumference of your circle of knowledge. Not geometrically but in a steady, linear way. That circumference represents the borderline of your knowledge, in other words the things of which you know that you do not know them. And this is the paradox of the increase of knowledge: as the circle of knowledge grows, your awareness of the limits of your knowledge expands as well. As a result, you may grow more cautious. It also explains why very knowledgeable persons often become very humble.