Wei Cui

Professor Wei Cui joined the law faculty at the University of British Columbia in 2013. His research and writing span a wide range of topics in tax law and policy, including international taxation, tax administration and compliance, tax and development, the value added tax, and tax and spending policies targeted at the labor market. His current research projects examine the design of international taxation in light of the evolution of international trade, and compare redistributive policies in democratic v. authoritarian countries. Wei also has secondary research interests in the modern administrative state, especially the analysis of interactions among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government in parliamentary polities and in non-democratic regimes.

Wei’s most recent book, The Administrative Foundations of the Chinese Fiscal State (Cambridge University Press 2022), offers a systematic study of Chinese taxation that explains the lessons China’s successful revenue-raising effort holds for developing countries, the reasons why mainstream economic theories must be revised to recognize fundamentally different types of state capacity, and the challenging questions the Chinese paradigm raises for the future of taxation.

Wei’s scholarship, which often engages with new discoveries of economists and political scientists, has been supported by two recent Insight Grants from the Social Sciences and Humanity Research Council of Canada.

Before becoming a full-time academic, Wei practiced tax law for over 10 years in New York and Beijing. During 2009-2010, he was Senior Tax Counsel at the China Investment Corporation. He has also served as a consultant to China’s National People’s Congress, Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Taxation, as well as to the United Nations.

Research and Publications

To learn more about my research, please visit my PURE Research profile. You can also access my publications on the following sites: 

• Allard Research Commons / bepress Legal Repository Search (Open source publications only)
• Allard Research Portal (Comprehensive list of publications)
• SSRN (Social Science Research Network)
• HeinOnline

• Taxation
• Tax Policy
• Economic Analysis of the Law
• International Taxation
• Ph.D. Seminar: Introduction to Legal Theory

Forthcoming Publications: 

• Strategic Incentives for Adopting the Global Minimum Tax, forthcoming in Journal of Legal Analysis (2024)
• The Chinese Tax System: Where It Stands and How We Should Study It, forthcoming in Linda Li (ed.) Handbook of Public Finance in China (Edward Elgar)
• False Idols in the Early History of International Taxation, forthcoming in Peter Harris and Dominic de Cogan (eds.) Studies in the History of Tax Law, Volume 12. Oxford: Hart Publishing
• Are Carbon Contracts for Difference Well-Suited for Canada? forthcoming in Canadian Tax Journal (Symposium on Tax Policy and the Environment)
• Comparing Canadian Output-Based Pricing Systems, Canadian Tax Journal (Symposium on Tax Policy and the Environment)

Representative Published Works in English

• Administrative Procedures as Tax Enforcement Tools (with J. Hicks and M. Wiebe), 237 Economics Letters 111649 (2024).  
• Flexible Work within Employment Relationships: A Conceptual Scheme for Fiscal Policies, Chapter 16 in D. de Cogan and A. Brassey (eds.) Tax Law in Times of Crisis and Recovery (Hart Publishing), 287-306 (2023)
• How Well-Targeted Are Payroll Tax Cuts as A Response to COVID-19: Evidence from China (with J. Hicks & M. Norton), International Tax and Public Finance (August 2022)
• New Puzzles in International Tax Agreements, 75(2) Tax Law Review 201-269 (2022)
• Cash on the Table? Imperfect Take-up of Tax Incentives and Firm Investment Behavior (with J. Hicks & J. Xing), 208 Journal of Public Economics 104632 (April 2022)
• The Administrative Foundations of the Chinese Fiscal State (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
• Non-Standard Employment and Canada’s Initial Pandemic Response, 69(2) Canadian Tax Journal 475-86 (2021)
• Corporate Tax Cuts for Small firms: What Do Firms Do? (with Mengying Wei, Weisi Xie, & Jing Xing), CESifo Working Paper No. 9389 (2021) 
• The Superiority of the Digital Services Tax over “Significant Digital Presence” Proposals, National Tax Journal 72(4), 839-856 (2019), View in Allard Research Commons 
• The Digital Services Tax: A Conceptual Defense, 73(1) Tax Law Review 69-111 (2019), View in Allard Research Commons
• The Digital Services Tax as a Tax on Location-Specific Rent (with Nigar Hashimzade), CESifo Working Paper no. 773, CESifo Group Munich (2019), View in Allard Research Commons
• Decentralizing Legislation in China’s Law on Legislation Amendment (with Jiang Wan), Hong Kong Law Journal 49(2), 665-696 (2019), View in Allard Research Commons
• Judicial Review of Government Actions (with Jie Cheng and Dominika Weisner), China Perspectives 2019, Issue 1, 29-38, View in Allard Research Commons
• Residence-Based Formulary Apportionment: (In)feasibility and Implications, 71(3) Tax Law Review 551 (2018), View in Allard Research Commons
• Taxation without Information: The Institutional Foundations of Modern Tax Collection, 20:1 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law 83-146 (2018), View in Allard Research Commons
• The Selection of Litigation against Government Agencies: Evidence from China (with Zhiyuan Wang), 13(3) Review of Law and Economics (Nov 2017), View in Allard Research Commons
• Destination-Based Cash-Flow Taxation: A Critical Appraisal, 67(2) University of Toronto Law Journal 301-347 (2017), View in Allard Research Commons
• Does Judicial Independence Matter? A Study of the Determinants of Litigation Patterns in an Authoritarian Regime, 38 U. Pa. J. Int’l L. 941-998 (2017)
• The Legal Maladies of ‘Federalism, Chinese-Style’, Weitseng Chen (ed.) The Beijing Consensus? How China Has Changed the Western Ideas of Law and Economic Development and Global Legal Practices (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 95-118., View in Allard Research Commons
• Minimalism about Source and Residence, 38:2 Mich. J. Int'l L. 245-269 (2017) , View in Allard Research Commons
• Destination-Based Taxation in the House Republican Blueprint, 152 Tax Notes 1419-1427 (September 5, 2016), View in Allard Research Commons
• Article 2: Taxes Covered, IBFD’s Global Tax Treaty Commentaries (2016)
• Taxing State-Owned Enterprises: Understanding a Basic Institution of State Capitalism, 52(3) Osgoode Hall Law Journal 775-817 (2016), View in Allard Research Commons
• The Inefficiencies of Legislative Centralization: Evidence from Chinese Provincial Tax Rate Setting (with Zhiyuan Wang), China: An International Journal, 13(3), pp 49-67 (2015), View in Allard Research Commons
• Administrative Decentralization and Tax Compliance: A Transactional Cost Perspective, 65(3) University of Toronto Law Journal 186 (2015), View in Allard Research Commons
• Taxation of State-Owned Enterprises: A Review of Empirical Evidence from China, Benjamin Liebman and Curtis Milhaupt (Eds.), Regulating the Visible Hand? The Institutional Implications of Chinese State Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2015), pp 109-131, View in Allard Research Commons
• Taxing Non-Residents’ Capital Gains, in Hugh Ault and Brian Arnold (Eds.), United Nations Handbook on Selected Issues in Protecting the Tax Base of Developing Countries (United Nations, 2015), pp 107-154
• Value Added Tax: A Comparative Approach (2nd Edition), with Alan Schenk and Victor Thuronyi (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
• China’s Business-Tax-to-VAT Reform: an Interim Assessment, British Tax Review  2014(5), pp 617-641, View in Allard Research Commons
• Taxing Indirect Transfers: Improving an Instrument for Stemming Tax and Legal Base Erosion, 33 Va. Tax Rev. 653 (2014), View in Allard Research Commons
• Objections to Taxing Resale of Residential Property under a VAT, 137 Tax Notes 777 (November 12, 2012), View in Allard Research Commons
• Foreign Administrative Law and International Taxation: a Case Study of Tax Treaty Implementation in China, 64 Administrative Law Review 191 (2012)
• China, in M. Lang et al (Eds.), The Impact of the OECD and UN Model Conventions on Bilateral Tax Treaties (Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp 259-291
• Fiscal Federalism in Chinese Taxation, World Tax Journal 2011(3), pp 455-80, View in Allard Research Commons
• Responding to Sovereign Funds: Are We Looking in the Right Place? 123 Tax Notes 1237 (June 8, 2009), View in Allard Research Commons
• Government Licensing Reform from the Perspective of a Municipal Jurisdiction, 33 Hong Kong L. J. 417 (2003)
• Joint Management as a Fair Solution to the Spratly Dispute, 36 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 799 (2003)

Representative Published Works in Chinese

• 《全球最低税与国家利益：论实施支柱二的策略动机》,《税务与经济》2024年第1 期/总第252期, 第4-31页
• 《国际税收协定面临的新谜题》，《税务与经济》2023年第2 期/总第247期,第1-24页。
• 《数字服务税：对于向地域性特殊租征收的一种税》，《复旦大学法律评论》第8辑（2022年）第2期。
• 《论数字服务税相比于“显著数字存在”提案的优势”》，《经济研究参考》2021年第21期/总第2989期，第113-128页
• 《数字服务税：一种概念上的辩护》,《经济研究参考》, 2020年第19 期/总第2963期,第31-55页
• 《行将实施的数字服务税》，《财政科学》2020 年第8 期（总第56 期）,第139-151页
• 《增值税比较研究》，与艾伦·申克、维克多·瑟仁伊合著，熊伟、任宛立译， 商务印书馆2018年
• 《中国税务行政诉讼实证研究》,《清华法学》, 2015年第3期。
• 《比较所得税法: 结构性分析(第3版)》（译著），与丁一合作，北京大学出版社2013年。
• 《税收立法高度集权模式的起源》,《中外法学》2012年第4期
• 《车船税率应由地方人大确定》，《新世纪周刊》，2011年1月31日
• 《论跨境服务营业税征收规则》，《税务研究》2010年第11期
• 《国有企业重组的“超特殊”税务处理：法律背景及评议》，《中外法学》2010年第6期
• 《新法规释放出纳税人权利良性信号》，《法制日报》2010年6月22日
• 《外商投资境内合伙企业的税法分析》，《环球法律评论》2009年第6期
• 《新<合伙企业法>及<企业所得税法>对合伙企业所得税制的挑战》，《法学评论》2009年第2期
• 《提高个税起征点拉动内需有限》，《第一财经日报》2008年12月4日
• 《外商投资二元课税模式及其政策取向——基于‘机构、场所'概念的分析》，《中外法学》2008年第6期
• 《准确衡量支付能力应该是个税改革的目标吗?》，《月旦财经法杂志》2006年12月第7期

Publications

Publications listed on the Allard Research Portal.

For Professor Cui's publications available on SSRN, go here: http://ssrn.com/author=633741
For Professor Cui's publications available on Selected Works, go here: http://works.bepress.com/wei_cui/