(Inter)national Tax Planning and Policy
About this minor
The minor ‘(Inter)national Tax Planning and Policy’ offers a programme for career-oriented students, combining a strong focus on skills development with state-of-the-art knowledge of the (inter)national tax arena in which the interests of stakeholders – businesses, citizens, NGO’s, governments and states – often conflict.
Description
The minor ‘(Inter)national tax planning and policy’ bridges the gap between technical tax law expertise and the broader societal, economic, and political dimensions of taxation. For tax law students, it provides the essential non-black letter knowledge needed to understand how tax rules function in practice: the economic incentives behind tax laws, the political forces shaping policy, and the administrative realities of enforcement. For non-tax students, it offers an accessible yet rigorous introduction to taxation, equipping them with foundational legal and fiscal knowledge that is increasingly valuable in fields like public policy, economics, governance, and international affairs. By combining legal, economic, and policy perspectives, this minor prepares students from all backgrounds to engage with taxation as a powerful tool of governance, business strategy, and social policy, ensuring they develop a skill set that is both highly relevant and in-demand across multiple career paths.
Building on this multidisciplinary foundation, the minor explores the key forces shaping modern taxation, from corporate boardrooms to global governance. Students will examine how businesses and individuals navigate tax systems, focusing on tax avoidance strategies, policy responses, and the ethical debates surrounding tax planning. The program also delves into the role of taxation in international relations and diplomacy, analyzing how governments cooperate and compete through tax policy in an era of globalization and digitalization.
By comparing different tax systems and assessing their economic and societal impacts, students will gain a deeper understanding of how tax policy decisions influence investment, inequality, and economic growth. This minor does not just teach what tax laws are but also how they are shaped, applied, and contested in practice, equipping students with the skills needed to engage in tax debates at the highest levels—whether in law, government, business, or international organizations. Accordingly, students receive training in foundational research competencies in several academic disciplines as well as collaboration and team-work skills. Students will apply these skills to real-world case-studies during tutorials and in panel discussions with tax experts from the public and private sector, by pursuing individual and group assignments, and by participating in negotiations and classroom debates.
Programme
The programme consists of six courses with a total study load of at least 30 EC spread over two blocks in the Fall semester.
Given the structure of the programme, preference is given to students who follow the full minor of 30 EC. As the courses in the advanced track build on those in the foundational track, those who wish to pursue only 15 EC of the programme must enrol in the courses of the foundational track.
International Tax Law: Globalization and Digitalization
This course covers the essentials of international tax law, giving you a foundational understanding of the most important features of the international tax system. This includes how globalization and digitalization are fundamentally reshaping the global economy, giving rise to tax opportunities and challenges for businesses and governments.
General Understanding of Comparative Tax Law
This course will introduce you to the essentials of domestic tax law, including the main differences between civil law and common law jurisdictions and the specific tax challenges of countries depending on their economic development. It also shows how national political and legal cultures shape what is considered acceptable tax planning and the diverse policy responses to it.
Economic Analysis of Tax Policy
In this course, you will explore tax planning and policy from an economic policy perspective. You will learn how to assess the economic impact of taxes, for instance, on the distribution of income or wealth, and you will gain understanding of the economic effects of (inter)national tax planning and policy.
Tax in the Boardroom
In this course, you will work on strategic tax issues that are discussed by CEOs and CFOs at the boardroom level of a multinational firm. You will unravel famous tax avoidance structures of large multinationals, like Ikea, Nike, and Starbucks and analyse the concept of ‘tax havens’. And you will evaluate whether international policy measures against tax avoidance and tax competition are effective.
Taxing Global Wealth
While the 1% can hide their fortunes from tax authorities, governments are working on new ways to tax global wealth. In this course you assess the different forms of wealth accumulation, wealth holdings, and wealth transfer, and the legal tools that governments use to tax them. You will also critically examine new policy proposals, such as the recently proposed global minimum wealth tax for ultra-high net worth individuals.
Tax Governance and Diplomacy
The course will build on the other courses of the minor to facilitate understanding and critical assessment of the structure of, and recent developments in international tax governance, including the (future) roles of the UN and the OECD, and the strategic environment within which international agreements to tackle aggressive tax planning are concluded