Associate Professor David White

Profile

Dr David White is an Associate Professor of Taxation at Victoria University of Wellington and a Senior Research Associate of the Victoria University of Wellington Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research.

Dr White’s current research focuses on comparative consumption taxation and tax systems in the Asia-Pacific, especially in Southeast Asia, capital gains taxation, tax policy and reform processes and international income taxation.

He is the New Zealand country correspondent for the International VAT Monitor and the Australian GST Journal. He is a member of the advisory board for the New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy and of the editorial board of Revista Mexicana de Derecho Financiero y Tributario/Mexican Review of Public Finance and Tax Law. He is also a member of the Canadian Tax Foundation and the New Zealand branch of the International Fiscal Association.

For over 10 years, Dr White worked closely with senior members of the New Zealand tax profession, tax administrators and tax policymakers in developing a tax research agenda as Associate Director of Victoria University of Wellington Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research (2001-14).

Dr White was a member of the Victoria University of Wellington Tax Working Group, which reviewed the New Zealand tax system (2009-10), a commentator for the Mirrlees Review of the United Kingdom tax system (2006-10) and a member of an international group that was invited to evaluate the Henry Review of the Australian tax system (2011). He was engaged to review Jordan’s double tax treaty policy and international business income tax regime (2004).

He has been a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, London (2006-10), a Visiting Fellow at the Urban‐Brookings Tax Policy Center, Washington DC (2012), and a Visiting Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore (2016).

Dr White was a Vice President of the Australasian Tax Teachers’ Association (2003-05). He has also worked as: a Chief Analyst in the New Zealand Treasury tax policy branch (1987-2000); a commercial lawyer (1983-87); and an international lawyer in the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1976-83).

Dr White has a doctorate in law from the University of Sydney, Australia (1997), a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics and Political Science, London (1975) and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (1973).

Selection of publications

White, David, ‘Multilateral Instruments – Where to from Here?’ a paper for the conference, ‘Taxing Non-Residents: A Global Response to BEPS?’ University of Auckland, Auckland, 15 July 2016.

White, David, ‘Opportunities and Challenges for GST/Sales Tax within ASEAN & the Asia-Pacific’, a seminar given at the Centre for Law & Business, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 18 February 2016.

White, David, ‘The Impact of Economic Theory on Capital Gains Tax Reform Proposals’ in Craig Elliffe and Michael Littlewood, eds, Capital Gains Taxation: A Comparative Analysis of Key Issues (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming).

White, David, ‘Personal Capital Gains Taxation: Reflections on the Influence of Economic Theory on Tax Reform Proposals’ (2015) 21(1) New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy, pp. 18-50.

White, David, ‘New Zealand: Offshore Supplier GST Registration Legislation’ (2015) 15 Australian GST Journal, pp. 115-12

White, David, ‘GST: The New Zealand Experience’ a presentation given at the opening session of an International Seminar on Goods and Services Tax entitled “GST: Policy to Practice – Experience from Around the World”, officiated by YAB Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Haji Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia and held at Sasana Kijang, Bank Negara Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 15 September 2014.

White, David, and Eugen Trombitas, ‘New Zealand’ in Michael Lang and Ine Lejeune (eds), Improving VAT and GST – Designing a Simple and Fraud-Proof Tax System (Amsterdam: IBFD, 2014), pp. 255-288.

White, David, ‘Building Trade Infrastructure with China and Asia-Pacific Countries: VAT/GST Challenges for Businesses, Governments and Researchers’, the lead presentation at a joint business links seminar offered by the Victoria University of Wellington Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research and the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, with commentary by the Chair, OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs' Working Party No 9 on Consumption Taxes and a KPMG tax partner, held at Victoria University of Wellington, 6 September 2013.

White, David, ‘A Further Canadian Contribution to Asia-Pacific VAT & GST Policymaking and Administration?’ a presentation given at a workshop entitled ‘Tax Policy for a Better Tomorrow: Intersectoral and Multidisciplinary Connections’ held in honour of Professor Neil Brooks in Toronto, Canada, 10-11 May 2013.

White, David, and Eugen Trombitas, ‘New Zealand’ in Thomas Ecker, Michael Lang and Ine Lejeune (eds), The Future of Indirect Taxation: Recent Trends in VAT and GST Systems Around the World – A Global Comparison (London: Kluwer Law International, 2011), pp. 355-397.

White, David, ‘Revenue Reach Entails Revenue Risk: GST and Real Property in New Zealand’ in Christine Peacock, ed., GST in Australia: Looking Forward from the First Decade (Sydney: Thomson Reuters, 2011), pp. 225-239.

White, David, and Ian Dickson, ‘Commentary on Value Added Tax and Excises’ in Sir James Mirrlees et al, eds., Dimensions of Tax Design: The Mirrlees Review (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 387-406.

White, David, Iris Claus, Norman Gemmell, Michelle Harding, eds., Tax Reform in Open Economies: International and Country Perspectives (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010), 329 pp.

White, David, and Leonard E Burman, ‘The Henry Review Recommendations to Reform the Taxation of Capital Gains in Australia: A Preliminary Assessment’ in Chris Evans, Richard Krever, and Peter Mellor, eds., Australia’s Future Tax System: The Prospects after Henry (Sydney: Lawbook Co, 2010), pp. 183-195.

White, David, “Income and Consumption Taxes in New Zealand: The Political Economy of Broad-Base, Low-Rate Reform in a Small Open Economy”, chapter 4 in John G. Head and Richard Krever, eds., Tax Reform in the 21st Century: A Volume in Memory of Richard Musgrave (Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands, Kluwer Law International, 2009), pp. 95-144.

White, David, Matt Benge, Norman Gemmell, Michelle Harding, eds., New Zealand Tax Reform: Where to Next? (Wellington, Treasury, 2009), 227 pp.

White, David and Leonard Burman, ‘Taxing Capital Gains in New Zealand: Assessment and Recommendations’, 29 pp., September 2009, a paper commissioned by the New Zealand Treasury for consideration by the Victoria University of Wellington Tax Working Group.

White, David and Dickson, Ian, ‘Tax Design Insights from the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax (GST) Model’ Victoria University of Wellington CAGTR Working Paper Series, Working Paper No. 60, April 2008.

White, David, and Krever, Richard (eds), GST in Retrospect and Prospect (Wellington: Brookers Ltd, 2007), 658 pp.

White, David, ‘The Serious Research Gap on VAT/GST: a New Zealand Perspective after 20 years of GST’, (2007) International VAT Monitor, 18 (5), pp. 343-351.

White, David, ‘Twenty Years of GST: The Best Path Forward,’ (2007) 13 (3) New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy, pp. 357-380.

White, David, ‘Definition of Foreign Investment Funds and Taxpayers’ Interests, Boundary Issues, and Losses’ in Prebble, John (ed), Taxing Offshore Investment Income: A Comparative Review of Structural Issues (Birmingham, Fiscal Publications, August 2006), pp. 21-44.

White, David, ‘Appellate Interpretation of NZ's GST Legislation: an Initial Survey: 1986-2005’ Australian GST Journal, 5, 10 (2005), pp. 205-223.

White, David and John Prebble, New Zealand branch report on the subject, ‘Source and Residence: New Configuration of their Principles. Theoretical Framework, Application and Experience’ (2005) Cahiers de Droit Fiscal International volume 90a Sdu Fiscale & Financiele Uitgevers, Amersfoort, the Netherlands, pp. 491-517.