Search results for "tax reform"
showing 10 items of 25 documents
Reforming a complicated income tax system: The political economy perspective
2006
Abstract In this paper we analyze the political economy of revenue-neutral income tax reforms when a government aims at cutting back deduction possibilities in exchange for lower tax rates (“tax-cut-cum-base-broadening”). We show that the individual decision whether to support or reject a reform proposal depends on how strongly the voter is affected by all available exemptions, even if the cut of only one single exemption is at stake. The voting outcome in the society depends on the joint distribution of the deductible characteristics. Due to implicit logrolling there are cases where only symmetrical tax reforms are possible, whereas for other properties of the joint distribution only asymm…
Evasion of Tax on Interest Income in a Two-Country Model
2001
t We consider a model where agents can invest money at home and abroad. Their total income comprises interest income from these investments and labor income. Tax on interest income can be evaded — at the risk of being detected and fined. We analyze the optimal portfolio and tax evading decisions of agents with different incomes. In a second step, we scrutinize the optimal government policy. Using different instruments government tries to maximize total tax receipts and to prevent flight of capital as far as possible.
Penalties in the Theory of Equilibrium Tax Evasion: Solving King John’s Problem
2010
The authors characterize equilibria of an income reporting game with bounded returns and no commitment where detected tax evaders are charged the maximally feasible amount. Introducing partial commitment to punishment relief eliminates multiplicity of equilibria. The authors identify a unique limit equilibrium where the poorest citizens evade, intermediate citizens are honest, and the richest citizens are indifferent between evading and truth telling. For small tax rates and auditing cost, committing to a discretionary punishment relief scheme increases expected tax revenue.
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. …
The Case for a Local Net Value-Added Tax for Municipalities
1987
In this paper the case made by the Advisory Council of the Federal Ministry of Finance for reform of the local business tax in Germany is outlined. The criteria for a good local tax are described, and the proposals deriving from the Council are presented. The proposed reform is to introduce a local value-added tax of the income type. This tax would be defined on the base of business payroll, profits, interest paid, and rent. It would include businesses, professions, and administrative bodies. The reform is outlined and possible criticisms are assessed. With appropriate definitions of tax base and an enlargement of the group of taxpayers, the value-added tax is argued to be the best approac…
Ecological tax reform?a value chain level approach
2002
This study assesses the effects of an ecological tax reform on three value chains. These case studies lead to an analysis of the business strategy options when companies face a shift in the relative prices of their production factors. The results support earlier research findings that the direct effects of an ecological tax reform on the price competitiveness of companies is on average rather small. However, the effects of the reform are shown to vary significantly between the different parts of the value chain. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment
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…
Corporate income tax accounting in Spain: an empirical study
2012
Since the initial application in Spain of the tax effect accounting method based on the international accounting standards (IAS 12 income tax) in 1990, very few empirical studies have examined whether this method provides significant information for decision making. The paper analyses the fiscal information provided in the financial statements, evaluating the significance of the differences between the tax effect accounting method and the taxes payable method and establishing that this one might be acceptable in small companies.
Comparative analysis of corporate tax burden in the euro area during 2000-2013
2016
Traditionally, some countries have been using the Corporate Income Tax as a way of, starting from relatively high nominal tax rates, encourage certain economic activities through incentives or bonuses that allow considerably reduce actual business taxation. In contrast, other member states have chosen to directly lower the tax rate, regardless of other incentives, thus bringing the nominal taxation to effective.This research aims to analyze the discrepancies in the taxation of corporate income tax between different Eurozone countries for the period 2000-2013, noting the differences between the statutory (STR) and effective tax rates (ETR) of listed companies. In this way, this work locates …
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 …