This second edition of the authoritative text by James Coleman discusses New Zealand jurisprudence on the general anti-avoidance provision. It enables practitioners to comply with the provision with increased confidence and predict with greater certainty when it applies. The book includes detailed coverage of the Supreme Court judgment in Ben Nevis and subsequent decisions by that Court on the application of the general anti-avoidance provision.

Tax Avoidance Law in New Zealand deals with the tests for what constitutes tax avoidance in the light of that judgment. It also deals with the interrelationship between the specific provisions of the Income Tax Act and the general anti-avoidance provision, the relationship between the general anti-avoidance provision and specific anti-avoidance provisions, and the concept of sham.

Topics covered include:

• analysing tax transactions
• history and commonwealth provisions
• purpose of general anti-avoidance provision
• what is and what is not tax avoidance and the leading indicators of each
• income splitting
• reconstruction issues.