Search results for "Tax reform"
showing 10 items of 25 documents
Corporate tax cuts and business-friendly policies in the UK - A review of electoral arguments during the 2015 legislative campaign
2016
The stance toward big business was a heated topic during Britain’s 2015 legislative campaign that led to the triumphal, albeit slightly unexpected, reelection of David Cameron, as Prime Minister. More profoundly, it raises the issue of the economic impact of corporate tax cuts and the nature of business-friendly policies in the UK. Firstly, we investigate the electoral arguments on both sides of the political spectrum. These discussions are framed within the overarching approach known as supply-side economics, which has been prevalent in English-speaking countries since the neoliberal revolution in the late 1970s. Secondly, we put forward the idea that widening inequalities, as suggested re…
Panama and the WTO: new constitutionalism of trade policy and global tax governance
2017
"Corrigendum" in Review of International Political Economy, 24(4), p. 738 (DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2017.1332547). Tax havens and tax flight have lately received increasing attention, while interest toward multilateral trade policies has somewhat diminished. We argue that more attention needs to be paid exactly to the interrelations between trade and tax policies. Drawing from two case studies on Panama's trade disputes, we show how World Trade Organization (WTO) rules can be used both to resist attempts to sanction secrecy structures and to promote measures against tax flight. The theory of new constitutionalism can help to explain how trade treaties can 'lock in' tax policies. However, our c…
Perspectives of tax reforms in Croatia: expert opinion survey
2014
In order to shape tax reform it is necessary objectively to assess the current stateof-the- art of and of the outlook for the tax system. After having reviewed all previous reforms in the light of the consumption-based (interest- adjusted) concept of direct taxation, which was almost systematically implemented in Croatia in 1994, we present the results of a broad expert opinion survey about the Croatian tax system. The most interesting results suggest the maintenance/(re)introduction of different tax incentives and reduced VAT rates, rejection of a flat tax as well as decrease of tax brackets, an increase in alcohol and tobacco duties, the introduction of a financial activities tax, a furth…
Tax Reforms and Labour-market Performance: An Evaluation for Spain using REMS
2009
This paper uses REMS, a Rational Expectations Model of the Spanish economy designed by Boscá et al (2007), to analyse the effects of lowering the overall tax wedge to the level prevailing in the US. Our results partially confirm previous findings in the literature: a reduction in the overall tax wedge of 19.5 points, in order to reach the US levels, has a positive effect in the long run, increasing total hours by about 7 per cent and GDP by about 8 percentage points. In terms of GDP per adult, these results account for 1/4 of the gap with respect to the US, but imply a reduction of only one percentage point in the labour productivity gap. The rise in total hours per adult is explained by a …
Tax Performance Assessment in Scandinavian Countries
2015
Abstract The aim of this paper is to evaluate fiscal policy performance level in Nordic countries of Europe by quantifying the gap between their performance and an optimum benchmark value. In this study it was selected Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. These countries occupy the first places in the ranking of countries with the highest rate of tax burden in Europe. The first part of paper contains general aspects of fiscal performance in international research and an overview of the Nordic tax systems model. The second part of paper focuses on evaluation of tax policy performance in these countries by using OptimTax scoring analysis. The research is based on a multivariate analysis instr…
Fiscal policy as an instrument for reducing income inequality: case of Latvia
2020
With the help of fiscal policy, government may influence both overall demand and the disposable income of the population, as well as solve social equality challenges in the society by allocating income among different groups of population. Income inequality in Latvia, which is expressed by the Gini index of disposable income, is the third highest in the European Union, so the question about the most effective instruments for reducing income inequality is pressing. Inequality results in reduced efficiency of social capital and economic distribution, worsening of population health indicators, rising social tension, increased crime and rising poverty, which can have a negative impact on long-t…
How Much Power to Tax do Regional Governments Enjoy in Spain Since the 1996 and 2001 Reforms?
2010
From 1979 to 1983, a new intermediate level of government was created in Spain. This article focuses on the financial aspects of political decentralization in Spain. How much power to tax do the new regional parliaments and executives enjoy? What other sources of income do they dispose of? Which rules have been settled for regulating their tax and non-tax sources of income? Has fiscal decentralization affected fiscal discipline? Are these governments now financially autonomous? These are the questions addressed. The article shows that, with the exception of the Basque Country and Navarre, regional governments were financed mainly through intergovernmental grants during the 1980s and 1990s. …
Value added taxes on electronic commerce: Obstacles to the EU Commission’s approach
2000
While e-commerce is developing tremendously fast, domestic politics and legislation labour to keep up with the dynamics of the new technology. Among other things, fiscal law is a particularly explosive area. Here, the current proposal of the EU Commission is to apply the already existing value added tax to e-commerce. By doing so, the Commission hopes to prevent the massive threatened shortfall in tax revenue. How is this approach of the Commission to be judged? Are there any alternatives?
Tax Liability and Tax Evasion in a Competitive Labor Market
2005
In a competitive labor market, a change in the legal incidence of a tax on labor will not alter employment if tax obligations are fulfilled. However, this irrelevance result may no longer apply if taxes can be evaded. In particular, a shift from payroll to income taxes will lower employment. This will be the case if workers exhibit constant absolute risk aversion, have a utility function, which is strongly separable in income and the disutility from working, and the penalty for evasion is not proportional to the amount of taxes evaded. Accordingly, tax evasion opportunities can make the legal incidence of a tax on labor an important determinant of its economic incidence.
Efficiency of Corporate Income Tax Reliefs for the Investment Promotion in Latvia
2014
Corporate income tax rate in Latvia is one of the lowest in the European Union and is favourable for business. However, the government additionally uses numerous CIT reliefs to stimulate investments, to promote specific industries and investors. Total costs of these tax reliefs are high, but many of the goals declared by their introduction are not reached, suggesting that tax relief efficiency could be questioned. The efficiency of the existing and potential CIT reliefs should be regularly evaluated. The suggested criteria for such examination are – clear objective, type of taxable rent, existence of positive externality, appropriate design and potential for tax planning, costs in revenue f…