Skip to main content
Unit of study_

LAWS6177: Tax Treaties

2025 unit information

This unit is designed to study the policy, detailed rules and practical application of Australia's international tax treaties against the background of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital. Upon successful completion of this unit a student should have an advanced understanding of the policies underlying the Australian tax treaty position in relation to the taxation of various kinds of income, as well as a detailed knowledge of the law applicable to interpretation of Australia's treaties. The unit includes a study of: principles of tax treaties; interpretation of tax treaties; and selected articles of the OECD Model and Australian tax treaties. Further information about this unit is available in the Sydney Law School timetable https://canvas.sydney.edu.au/courses/4533/pages/postgraduate-lecture-timetable, unit of study outline https://www.sydney.edu.au/units and academic staff profile https://www.sydney.edu.au/law/about/our-people/academic-staff.html

Unit details and rules

Managing faculty or University school:

Sydney Law School

Study level Postgraduate
Academic unit Law
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
? 
None
Corequisites:
? 
None
Prohibitions:
? 
None
Assumed knowledge:
? 
It is assumed that students undertaking this unit have an understanding of Australian income taxation law commensurate with that which would be obtained from completing undergraduate study in Australian taxation law or five years working with Australian tax law in a law or accounting practice in an industry role or in the Australian Taxation Office. Students who do not have such knowledge or work experience should undertake LAWS6825 Fundamentals of Australian Taxation before enrolling in other units. For students have not studied Australian law it is recommended that they undertake LAWS6252 Legal Reasoning and the Common Law System before enrolling in LAWS6825 and this unit. The completion of LAWS6209 Australian International Taxation will provide students without such knowledge or work experience with additional knowledge and skills that will assist in successfully completing this unit.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. Critically analyse the detailed rules and underlying policies applied to tax treaties.
  • LO2. Create and substantiate/justify analyses of the current legal rules on taxation
  • LO3. Evaluate the efficacy of current taxation rules and propose viable alternatives.
  • LO4. Apply legal rules on taxation to resolve complex legal and taxation scenarios.

Unit availability

This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.

The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.

Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Intensive April 2024
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 1b 2025
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 1 2020
Normal evening Castlereagh St, Sydney
Intensive May 2021
Block mode Remote
Semester 1b 2022
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 1b 2022
Block mode Remote
Semester 1b 2023
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Find your current year census dates

Modes of attendance (MoA)

This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.