Fears of a property bubble that, if it burst, could create urban China's first widespread experience of negative equity prompted the authorities in Shanghai last week to announce a 5.5% capital-gains tax on the sale of property held for less than a year.

ECONOMIST: Reforms to keep things the same

Such solutions deal with only a few of "thousands of related issues, " Upson said, including how to handle product sales to American consumers that take place on American company-owned servers based in foreign countries and how to tax the sale of digital goods and intellectual property such as software and computer-generated music.

CNN: The Internet tax revolt

So how is somebody like Frederick Cornelius, a sophisticated real estate investor according to to the Appellate Court of Connecticut, surprised when property that he never paid taxes on is lost in a tax sale ?

FORBES: Sale Of Hartford Property For Delinquent Real Estate Taxes Whets Appetite For Rest Of The Story