Advance Pricing Agreements and the Struggle to Allocate Income for Cross Border Taxation

Abstract

The past decade has been a tumultuous and energized period in the study of administrative law and regulatory regimes. Debate continues over both positive and normative theories of the administrative state, as well as over the appropriate directions of innovation and reinvention. Among legislators and the public, the tax system and the IRS have been targets for criticism. This article outlines and evaluates a recent procedural innovation in the tax area, the Advance Pricing Agreement Program, linking procedural innovation to the broader issues of administrative law theory and regulatory reform. Ultimately, detailed understandings of innovations in administrative systems are essential to developing and challenging positive and normative theories of administrative law—and to designing concrete applications of administrative law policy.