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The report presents a reassessment of fiscal transparency practices in the Republic of Cameroon, in comparison with the principles of the IMF Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency. It is the follow-up to a pilot report prepared by the IMF on transparency in fiscal management. The first part describes current fiscal transparency practices in Cameroon. The second component is the IMF staff commentary on fiscal transparency in the Republic of Cameroon. This report also contains an assessment of transparency in natural resource revenue management.
The book describes the difficulties of the current international corporate income tax system. It starts by describing its origins and how changes, such as the development of multinational enterprises and digitalization have created fundamental problems, not foreseen at its inception. These include tax competition—as governments try to attract tax bases through low tax rates or incentives, and profit shifting, as companies avoid tax by reporting profits in jurisdictions with lower tax rates. The book then discusses solutions, including both evolutionary changes to the current system and fundamental reform options. It covers both reform efforts already under way, for example under the Inclusive Framework at the OECD, and potential radical reform ideas developed by academics.
Over the past fifteen years countries in Latin America made tremendous progress in strengthening their economies and improving living standards. Although output fell temporarily during the global financial crisis, most economies staged a rapid recovery. However, economic activity across the region has been cooling off and the region is facing a more challenging period ahead. This book argues that Latin America can rise to the challenge, and policymakers in the region are already implementing reforms in education, energy, and other sectors. More is needed, and more is possible, in Latin America’s quest to continue to improve living standards.
This Technical Assistance report presents an international perspective on the employment impact of tax policy, and develops recommendations considering the background in the People’s Republic of China. This report discusses the impact of tax policy including social security contributions on employment in China that covers both the taxation of employed labor and small- and medium-sized enterprises. The findings draw on economic theory, international experiences, as well as discussions with Chinese authorities during a workshop in Yangzhou and meetings in Beijing. The personal income tax on wages is low, but the tax wedge, which includes social security contributions, is high and follows an unsteady pattern, rising, falling, and again rising. The taxation of labor differs strongly by type and location of employment. The schedular system of the personal income tax means that labor taxes differ depending on the category into which income falls. Small businesses are offered some simplifications but are likely to still face disproportionally greater compliance costs.
This paper aims to contribute to the international policy debate around profit shifting, tax avoidance and SSA’s revenue mobilization efforts in three ways. First, it examines the importance of mining, the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs), and mining revenue outcomes in SSA. Second, it assesses the magnitude of profit shifting in mining drawing on new macro level research, supplemented by case studies to illustrate the lived experience of tax avoidance in SSA mining. Third, the paper identifies tax policy reforms that could boost revenue mobilization in SSA.
This book provides a diagnosis of the central economic and financial challenges facing Caribbean policymakers and offers broad policy recommendations for promoting a sustained and inclusive increase in economic well-being. The analysis highlights the need for Caribbean economies to make a concerted effort to break the feedback loops between weak macroeconomic fundamentals, notably pertaining to fiscal positions and financial sector strains, and structural impediments, such as high electricity costs, limited financial deepening, violent crime, and brain drain, which have depressed private investment and growth. A recurring theme in the book is the need for greater regional coordination in fin...
This paper extends the effective average tax rate (EATR) developed in Devereux and Griffith (2003) by relaxing the assumption of a one-period perturbation in the capital stock. Instead it allows a permanent investment. While this may appear a small change, it has important implications. First, it allows the EATR to be calculated in the presence of tax holidays, which are an important part of tax systems, especially in developing countries. Second, it reveals an interesting feature of the original EATR: despite the assumption of a one-period investment, the original measure is informative about long-term investments, thanks to the assumption of pooled depreciation. Without this assumption-which is justifiable in a few countries only- the EATR based on one-period perturbation in the capital stock would be less useful for analyzing medium and long-term investments.
This paper analyses and compares two different groups of tools, the first to encourage the use of invoices (or payment systems) and the second to refund the VAT to low-income individuals. The analysis contributes to the existing literature by providing a clear characterization between these two groups of tools that are too often misunderstood and offers clear guidance to policymakers on the benefits and pitfalls of them based on available empirical studies and novel data analysis. Briefly, the first group includes a set of regressive and distortive tools (such as, allowing deducting the VAT paid on personal consumption from the PIT and reducing the VAT rate for using electronic means of payments or registration), while the second group includes tools that are less distortionary and improve income distribution (tax credits and VAT rate reduction targeted only at low-income individuals). This paper also finds that allowing the deduction of personal consumption against the PIT’s taxable base (i) did not impact positively the VAT revenue in Guatemala and (ii) worsens the income distribution in Ecuador.
This paper articulates and, using newly-assembled data, explores how international taxation affects aggregate tangible cross-border investment. Spillovers from statutory tax rates abroad seem: As sizable as effects from the host’s rate; larger than previous consensus values (attributed to a systematic bias from FDI data); and consistent with ‘implicit’ profit shifting through real investment (rather than ‘paper’ profit shifting). Contrary to much policy discussion, the results also imply that: Host countries’ marginal effective tax rates have at best a weak effect on real investment; those elsewhere have none; and, applied to the prospective global minimum tax, inward tangible investment in most sample countries will increase.
This paper focuses on two core tax design issues that arise in addressing current fiscal challenges. It first explores the idea, prominent in troubled Eurozone countries, of a "fiscal devaluation": shifting from social contributions to the VAT as a way to mimic a nominal devaluation. Empirical evidence is presented which suggests that in Eurozone countries this may indeed improve the trade balance in the short-run, though, as theory predicts, the effects eventually disappear. The paper then assesses the wider scope for VAT reform in meeting fiscal consolidation needs, developing and beginning to apply a methodology for finding additional VAT revenue in ways less distortionary and fairer than further raising the standard rate.