Skip to Main Content

Comparative Tax Law


This Guide is about... 

This Guide will assist you to use research tools to identify all tax laws in every country, and to compare tax laws across all jurisdictions.


Worldwide Tax Laws - Finding Tax Law Commentary and Legislation for all Countries 

Domestic tax legislation can usually be found in the open access legislation databases of all countries. However, if you want one resource that can be used to research multiple countries in English, we recommend the IBFD tax research platform and Bloomberg Tax (UniMelb staff & student access).
IBFD provides tax law information for all countries. Searches options include country, jurisdiction, region, international organisation and topic. These areas can be further broken down, for example once you are in countries you can drill down into tax news, tables, country tax guides, treaties & models, etc. Topic options can be drilled down under the following headings corporate taxation, individual taxation, mergers & acquisitions, natural resources, treaties, etc.

NOTE: while all the country databases will describe the relevant  law and rules, only the Country Analysis database will name the domestic legislation that applies to individual and corporate tax. Similarly, only the Country Surveys database will name the domestic legislation that applies to business and investment

NOTE ALSO that, apart from linking to full text US legislation, these databases do not link to the full text of domestic legislation - you will have to find this in individual country legislation databases.

Bloomberg Tax

Includes summaries and in depth analysis of the operations of more than 200 jurisdictions via Country Guides and Country Portfolios. Use the Chart Builder to export data for comparative analysis. The database’s international content also includes the International Tax Treaties section and Tax News, including practitioner articles available via the Daily Tax Report.