Parrot (asker) Aug 1, 2009:

That was precisely the point of my Q Thanks to the two of you. It's true that "fraude fiscal" should be the parallel term, but the it is not used in the text.

delveneto Aug 1, 2009:

Honestly, these fiscal terms, tax avoidance, tax shelter, tax scheme, tax evasion, tax planning, tax mitigation, so forth, and fiscal terms in general, are sometimes really tough to translate between countries because many times they are based on legislation and legislation among countries never match. I also wanted to add my opinion so that to further enrich the discussion. I am also interested in knowing how the discussion will end since this is an area that is of great personal interest to me.

Rebecca Jowers Aug 1, 2009:

Before the contact with my Spanish lawyer students I had always translated "tax fraud (or) evasion" as "fraude fiscal" or "evasión fiscal", and "tax avoidance" as "elusión fiscal". But my students have always insisted that, at least as used in Spain, "economía de opción" is "tax avoidance". I haven't had the opportunity to pursue the definition further, so I am offering this simply as a possibility to investigate.

delveneto Aug 1, 2009:

Another good link:
http://www.taxbar.com/articles/Tax_Avoidance_Tax_MitigationP...

delveneto Aug 1, 2009:

"Economía de opción" is not the same as "elusión". "Elusión" is "tax avoidance". About "economía de opción", concepts may vary slightly between Spanish-speaking countries but in Spain I understand its best translation would be "tax mitigation" or even "tax planning" since there are many references that show in Spain the use of "economia de opción" as a synonym for "planificación fiscal".

Wikipedia writes that "tax avoidance" and "tax mitigation" are synonym but this is not exactly true. In the same page, wikipedia writes about how in UK tax avoidance and tax mitigation have different meanings. So, it is actually a term whose meaning is country-dependent.

Another example: New Zealand:
http://taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz/publications/files/html/coe/cha...
"6.16 Tax avoidance and tax mitigation are mutually exclusive. Tax avoidance and tax evasion are not:..."

Spain has also its own use of the term "economía de opción" and as far as I can see it is not "elusión" (tax avoidance).

http://www.kriptia.com/CIENCIAS_JURIDICAS_Y_DERECHO/DERECHO_...
Look for "EVASION, ELUSION Y ECONOMÍA DE OPCION" in the

Rebecca Jowers Aug 1, 2009:

This may not be "scientific," but may be useful. "Economía de opción" would appear to have as its closest counterpart in English "tax avoidance" (or "tax mitigation scheme" might also work). This is according to several "promociones" of students in my legal English classes (all Spanish "licenciados en derecho" who are enrolled in a M.A. in legal practice). Each year when we get to the tax law lesson and discuss the terms "tax evasion" vs. "tax avoidance," they inevitably say that "tax evasion" is "fraude fiscal" (or "evasión fiscal"), while when we look at the definition of "tax avoidance" they say, "sí, esto es 'economía de opción".

Parrot (asker) Jul 31, 2009:

Thank you all I'll be keeping the question open till I've revised the whole text, as there might still be some context requiring me to put it on a par with the generic "fraud in equity".