Shoup and international tax reform after the Japan mission

As the introduction to this volume noted, various international tax experts have testified eloquently as to the ongoing significance and influence of the Shoup mission on global tax reform. Expanding on their comments to provide a detailed and in-depth assessment of exactly how the experience of the Shoup mission influenced the hundreds of missions that have promoted international tax reform since 1950 lies beyond the scope of this volume. It is possible, however, to move toward such an assessment by doing three things: (1) suggesting some of the key elements of the Shoup mission to Japan that shaped his other missions, (2) considering what Shoup learned from his experiences in Japan and how this learning influenced his subsequent missions, and (3) examining, albeit briefly, how recent international tax assistance has compared with the work of Shoup’s supposedly prototypical missions.