Tax and bilateral investment treaties

Bilateral investment treaties (BITs), which protect and promote cross-border investments, are one of many areas of law which may be relevant for tax lawyers. BITs may be relevant to tax either because, on the face of it, tax is included in the scope of a treaty, or because only some parts of a tax system are excluded from the remit of a treaty. Substantial tax disputes worth many millions have been dealt with under the procedures under BITs. An interesting feature of disputes under BITs is that they are dealt with under arbitration rather than in litigation. This can be particularly useful for a variety of reasons.