handbook-tb

Peter A. Harrissale of different types of assets and income derived from them. Third,assets must be allocated to particular persons (for example, ownership)and the earning activities of that person. Fourth, an income taxlaw is concerned with movements in the value of assets, whether whileheld (for depreciation purposes) or at least when they are disposed of(for purposes of calculating gains).“Income” is the return derived from the provision of resourcesin the context of an earning activity calculated for a particular period,usually the tax year, less any assets used in the provision. In the contextof a realization-based income tax (in practice the residual basisof all income taxes) this means the netting of amounts paid againstamounts received in the context of an earning activity.Payments are the building blocks of the calculation of incomeand, as with other income tax essentials, payments must be identifiedand have certain fundamental features. A “payment” is broadlythe bestowal of value by one person on another person. 7 The ways inwhich a person may make a payment reflect the resources availableto that person, that is to say, the provision of labour, the use of assets,the ownership of assets or a combination thereof. A payment may bemade by one person transferring an asset, including cash, to anotherperson. There is also a bestowal of value when one person gives uprights (an asset) that they have against another person (a liability). Sothe reduction of a liability is also a payment. This type of paymentinvolves the destruction of an asset by one person without the acquisitionof an asset by another person. The third type of payment involvesthe opposite, where one person uses their resources to create an assetthat becomes owned by another person, even though the first personnever owned the asset created. The fourth type of payment involves thepayer permitting another person to use an asset that the payer owns.The fifth type of payment is similar and involves one person providingservices (labour) for the benefit of another person.7See OECD Action 2 — 2014 Deliverable, supra note 2, 21, which onlyprovides examples of payments (and “includes” definition) and specificallyexcludes “payments that are only deemed to have been made for tax purposesand that do not involve the creation of economic rights between theparties.” See OECD Public Discussion Draft on BEPS Action 2 — DomesticIssues, supra note 2, 45.194