The authors found inspiration for this book in a postgraduate course they have jointly taught at the Law Faculty of the University of Cambridge since 2001. The authors have divergent backgrounds, one heavily focused in academia with the outlet of drafting tax laws for an international organisation, the other for twenty-five years a tax partner in an international firm of chartered accountants with the outlet of editorship of the UK's leading tax journal. This divergence gives rise to a synergy from which each author has benefited greatly.

The book is designed for postgraduate students and junior practitioners. It is more than an introduction to the subject. It challenges the reader to think about tax issues conceptually and holistically, while illustrating the structure with practical examples. More senior tax practitioners and academics may also find it useful as a means of refreshing their understanding of the basics and the conceptual framework may challenge them to think more deeply about tax issues than they currently do.

Consistent with the purpose of this book, the authors are firmly of the view that any future edition should not exceed 500 printed pages of text and will do their utmost to ensure that that limit is never exceeded.

The law in this book is stated as at 20 March 2010. The agreed contributions of the authors to this book are 75 per cent Peter Harris and 25 per cent David Oliver.