Introduction

There is an inverse relationship between quantity and quality with respect to many things, including writing about tax avoidance. Everyone working in the tax area has views about tax avoidance and almost everyone, it seems, feels an irresistible urge to inflict these views on others. Most of the writing on tax avoidance is in the nature of fast food: quickly prepared, consumed, digested and forgotten – and, if consumed in excessive quantities, dangerous to your (mental) health. In a fast-food world, master chefs are revered and celebrated. Professor John Tiley is a master chef with respect to offerings about tax avoidance. His writings about controlling tax avoidance constitute the fine-dining experience, the Michelin three-star restaurant in a world of greasy spoons, chains and all-you-can-eat buffets. It is fitting that we celebrate his contributions.

The subject of my paper is a comparison of a statutory general anti-avoidance rule and judicial general anti-avoidance doctrines as methods of controlling tax avoidance. The paper assumes, fairly I think, that specific statutory anti-avoidance rules and limited judicial anti-avoidance doctrines such as sham are necessary but not even nearly sufficient to deal effectively with tax avoidance. The issue can be framed in a number of ways.