Geoffrey Loomer

Biography

I am interested in all areas of tax law and policy. Most of my research has focused on international taxation, corporate taxation, and the connections between tax evasion, tax avoidance, and tax administration. Although the study of tax law involves highly technical issues, all tax policy is public policy: the design of domestic tax systems and global tax rules reflects our views about public services, economic distribution, and social progress.

I joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria in 2018. I studied economics at UVic and law at UBC, after which I clerked with the BC Supreme Court and practised with the tax group at McCarthy Tétrault LLP (Vancouver office). Later I completed graduate degrees at the University of Oxford, focusing on corporate and international taxation. I remain affiliated with the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation as a Research Fellow. I was a faculty member at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie in 2009–2018, before moving to UVic in 2018. I served as the Associate Dean, Administration and Research from 2021 through 2024. I am a co-author of textbooks on Canadian income tax law and corporate tax law and have published widely on comparative and international tax matters. I received the Dalhousie Law Students’ Society & Alumni Association Teaching Award in 2013 and the UVic Law Students’ Society Terry Wuester Teaching Award in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Education

• BSc (Economics) – UVic (1994)
• LLB – UBC (2000)
• BCL – Oxford (2005)
• DPhil (International Taxation) – Oxford (2011) (Clarendon Scholar)

Selected books

• David G. Duff, Geoffrey Loomer, Bradley Bryan, and Rory Gillis, Canadian Income Tax Law, 7th ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2023)
• David G. Duff & Geoffrey Loomer, Taxation of Business Organizations in Canada, 2nd ed.  (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2019)

Selected publications and book chapters

• “Canada” (National Report) in Florian Haase, ed., Taxation of International Partnerships, 2nd ed. (Amsterdam: IBFD, 2025) ch 6
• “Canada” (National Report) in Guglielmo Maisto, ed., Taxation of Interest under Domestic Law, EU Law and Tax Treaties, EC and International Tax Law Series vol. 19 (Amsterdam: IBFD, 2022) ch 14
• “Canada v. Alta Energy Luxembourg SARL: Supreme Court of Canada divided on whether treaty shopping is abusive” [2022] British Tax Review 329
• “The Definition of Avoidance Transaction: The Purpose Test” in Brian J. Arnold, ed., The General Anti-Avoidance Rule: Past, Present, and Future (Toronto: Canadian Tax Foundation, 2021) 173
• “The Disjunction Between Corporate Residence and Corporate Taxation: Is Improvement Possible?” (2015) 63 Canadian Tax Journal 91
• “Canada” (National Report) in Hans Gribnau & Melvin Pauwels, eds., Retroactivity of Tax Legislation: 2010 EATLP Congress (Leuven: European Association of Tax Law Professors, 2013) 193
• “Corporate Tax Risk and Tax Avoidance: New Approaches” [2009] British Tax Review 74 (with Judith Freedman & John Vella)
• “Taxing Out of Time: Parliamentary Supremacy and Retroactive Tax Legislation” [2006] British Tax Review 64

Courses

• Law 316: Secured Transactions and Negotiable Instruments
• Law 345: Taxation
• Law 346A: Advanced Taxation: Corporations
• Law 346B: Advanced Taxation: International

Graduate supervision

Prof. Loomer welcomes expressions of interest from graduate students with an interest in Canadian tax law, comparative tax law, and critical approaches to international tax law and policy.