scholarly journals Reappraising the Tax Gap

Author(s):  
Richard Murphy

The tax gap has been described as the amount of tax jurisdictions do not collect, caused by the tax system not being appropriately complied with—in the manner intended by the tax authority—given the current tax laws in operation. That description does, however, ignore the fact that substantial parts of their potential tax revenues are not collected by all governments as a result of their decisions not to tax some tax bases, or because of granted tax allowances, reliefs and exemptions, many of which in turn provide opportunities for tax abuse. This chapter considers the implications of reframing the tax gap to include these tax losses that arise as a result of government policy and suggests the changes in perception, including in macro-economic as well as micro-economic thinking, that might result if this were done. For this, the use of tax spillover analysis is recommended.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4768
Author(s):  
Anna Kowal ◽  
Grzegorz Przekota

The effectiveness of the tax system can be analysed in various ways. According to the authors one of manifestations of such effectiveness is resistance to tax evasion. This phenomenon is influenced by multiple factors, with few being the level of VAT rates and the number of rates in force in the country concerned. The aim of the considerations is therefore to analyse how the standard VAT rate as well as the number of rates affect the effectiveness of this tax. The research was based on a literature query in the field of value added tax in the European Union. In addition, the problem of tax evasion was indicated and the aggregated data on the size of the tax gap in the Member States were presented. Then, there are the results of the research for 27 European Union countries for 2011–2019. The efficiency of VAT collection was modelled using square function, determining the significance of the parameters of this function, as well as the value of abscissa, which made it possible to group the countries based on how they maintained the efficiency of VAT collection over the analysed period of time. The final part of the study concentrates on the relationship between the efficiency of tax collection and the amount of both the basic rate and the number of rates. The conclusions of the research are as follows: a tax system with a small number of reduced rates, and preferably with one relatively low standard rate, is the system least susceptible to tax fraud. The research also shows a positive correlation between the value of the basic VAT rate along with the number of preferential rates and the scale of the tax gap, i.e., in countries with a higher standard VAT rate and a greater number of preferential rates, the tax gap is greater. The study will enable further investigation into the strategy of determining the optimal VAT rate and the process of its unification. Proposed changes may contribute to increasing the efficiency of VAT administration in EU countries, reducing the shadow economy, tax fraud and positively influencing economic growth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-13
Author(s):  
ALENA ANDREJOVSKÁ ◽  
VERONIKA KONEČNÁ ◽  
JANA HAKALOVÁ

VAT is one of the most decisive tax revenues sources in the EU Member States. Due to financial frauds and insufficient tax system, there is a billion loss of EUR every year in the European budget. The article deals with the impact of the tax evasion on economies of the EU Member States. By applying the top-down approach, we observed tax gaps as a quantifier of tax evasion from 2004 to 2017. The period around the economic crisis in 2009 was examined in more detail, as there was a sharp change in the evolution of tax gaps. We constructed a regression model, which examined the relationship of the tax gap and VAT tax revenues to selected determinants of tax evasion. The results showed that tax gaps in the Member States have been growing every year. We also found that there is an increase in tax revenues, but tax liabilities increase to greater extent.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-73
Author(s):  
.Mohamed Helou Daoud Al-Khorsan ◽  
Hana Ali Hussein Al-Quraishi ◽  
Ziad Taher Mohamed Ali

There is growing interest by governments in different systems of government in which political ideas which it believes, taxes as instruments of fiscal policy, seeking to achieve through which political, social and economic goals as well as "financial targets, as the tax policy formulated objectives and plans its revenues consistently and harmony with the objectives of economic policy in general, In the context of the tax reform, different countries have resorted to the search for possible alternatives to maintain a financially, economically and socially effective fiscal policy. Iraq should not be different from these countries. It establishes a fiscal policy to achieve tax revenues by activating the role of the tax system to strengthen the budget in the light of economic changes and financial crises in recent years, The main reason for the need to activate the tax system in Iraq is the very modest contribution of tax revenues within the state budget, To address the reasons for the low contribution of tax revenues it is necessary to identify the elements of the success of the tax system and discuss the tax revenue in two aspects The level of general headquarters and branches on the one hand, and knowledge the facilities or obstacles which is provided by the tax system   to increase the proceeds of the receipt of the other, and finally reach the reform of the tax system, which we find an important requirement for the reform of the Iraqi financial and economic system in this time, In this context, the study deals with the tax revenues in Iraq as planned by the tax administration in accordance with the statistics of the tax administration and then identify the impact of the tax system in making the proceeds low for public revenues.


Author(s):  
Binhan Elif Yılmaz ◽  
Sinan Ataer

Compatible with a variety of cyclical fluctuations in fiscal policy, is the automatic stabilising fiscal policies. There is a need to calculate the income elasticity of tax for relieving the effects of cyclical fluctuations. Income elasticity of tax, that is tax revenue have relative change, the ratio of the relative change in national income. This ratio must be bigger than 1 to label a tax system as elastic. If this ratio is bigger than 1, this situation also show the tax system has an automatic stabilizing feature. By that way, without any changes in tax structure, tax revenues increase in the deflation times and decrease in the inflation times. The automatically compensatory movement of tax revenues, generally referred to as “built-in flexibility”, has received increasing attention. The aim of this study is examining the existence of automatic stabilizers in the OECD countries by evaluating the income elasticity of income and consumption taxes and by making cross-countries comparatives.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
Tomasz Wołowiec

Public discussions concerning tax system reforms are dominated by the view that lowering taxes is the only panacea for stimulating economic growth. But is this really so? To be able to answer this question we need to examine how the level of fiscal burden and structure of budget tax revenues are correlated with GDP growth rate (27 EU countries, data 2000-2018). A relationship that is particularly examined is the correlation between the level of fiscal burden in personal income tax and economic growth rate. Considerably less attention is paid in various analyses to the influence of the structure of budget tax revenues on economic growth.


2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael E. Goodhue ◽  
Jeffrey T. LaFrance ◽  
Leo K. Simon

AbstractWe consider the impact of taxes on the quantity and quality produced by a competitive firm of goods, such as wine, for which market value accrues with age. Our analysis found the following: an increase in the volumetric retail tax collected at sale increases quality, so that the basic Alchian-Allen effect holds. However, an increase in the volumetric storage tax collected each period decreases quality, as does an increase in the ad valorem storage tax. The effect of an increase in the ad valorem retail tax on quality is indeterminate. Increases in any of the four taxes reduce the quantity of wine produced. Any two-tax system that includes a volumetric sales tax spans the full range of feasible tax revenues with positive tax rates. For any tax system that reduces quality relative to the firm's no-tax equilibrium, there is another tax system that increases tax revenues, eliminates the quality distortion, and does not increase the quantity distortion. Many wine industry observers believe that most, if not all, existing tax systems tend to result in the suboptimal provision of quality. Our results suggest that the wide variety of wine tax systems is not prima facie evidence that these systems, or most of them, are inefficient. Provided the system includes a volumetric sales tax it may be efficient, regardless of which of the other instruments, or how many of them, are used. Assertions regarding inefficiency must be evaluated on an empirical case-by-case basis. Our analysis provides a theoretical framework for such research. (JEL Classification: D2, H2, Q1)


account ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ratiyah Ratiyah ◽  
Lukman Sri Muchtar

ABSTRACT   In order to maximize taxes, the Government carried out reforms by implementing policies thatwere driven by the smaller possibility of hiding assets outside the territory of the Republic ofIndonesia.  One part of the current tax reform is the government policy regarding the Tax Amnestyprogram.  This study aims to find out how to increase awareness and compliance of Taxpayers and tofind out the achievement of Tax Amnesty results.  The results of this study are that the awareness andcompliance of individual taxpayers in the tax amnesty program is quite high because the governmentseeks to improve several sectors, namely by conducting socialization from the government itself andfrom the tax service office.  The results of achieving Tax Amnesty are quite significant even thoughthere are several obstacles.  It means that the Tax Amnesty program is planned in the long term andwas managed well and the State will get an increase in tax revenues in a short time. Keywords: Tax Amnesty, Taxpayer  ABSTRAK   Dalam rangka memaksimalkan pajak, Pemerintah melakukan reformasi dengan menerapkankebijakan untuk terobosan yang didorong oleh semakin kecilnya kemungkinan untukmenyembunyikan harta kekayaan di luar wilayah Negara kesatuan Republik Indonesia. Salah satubagian dari reformasi perpajakan saat ini dengan adanya kebijakan pemerintah mengenai programTax Amnesty. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui bagaimana meningkatkan kesadaran dankepatuhan Wajib Pajak dan untuk mengetahui pencapaian hasil Tax Amnesty. Hasil dari penelitianini yaitu Kesadaran dan kepatuhan wajib pajak orang pribadi dalam program tax amnesty cukuptinggi ini dikarenakan pemerintah berupaya untuk meningkatkan beberapa sektor yaitu denganmelakukan sosialisasi baik dari pemerintah itu sendiri maupun dari kantor pelayanan pajak dan hasilpencapaian penerapan Tax Amnesty cukup signifikan meski masih ada beberapa kendala. Yangartinya jika program Tax Amnesty direncanakan dalam jangka panjang dan dikelola dengan baik,Negara akan memperoleh peningkatan penerimaan pajak dalam waktu singkat. Kata kunci: Tax Amnesty, Wajib Pajak


e-Finanse ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Mazurek-Chwiejczak

Abstract Social disparities have a common and consistent character in the vast majority of contemporary countries. The level of income inequality in OECD countries has grown in the past 30 years and is still rising. Taxes and tax systems, aside from social transfers, are fiscal instruments widely used in compensation policy.The aim of the article is to define the optimal structure of tax systems (i.e. the share of different tax categories in tax revenues) in terms of narrowing income disparities. To achieve this aim, scatter diagrams have been used. For the purpose of the article a tentative hypothesis has been formulated that the optimal tax system in terms of narrowing income disparities is characterised by a relatively large share of Personal Income Tax and at the same time a relatively low share of consumption taxes in tax revenues. The detailed analysis is focused on the countries for which the full data is available. The group of countries covers some “old” member states of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom), the South- -East European countries (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia) as well as non-EU countries (Canada and Iceland). These countries represent different levels of socio-economic development and, as a result, the variety of situations concerning the distribution of income.


Federalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 80-99
Author(s):  
L. N. Lykova

In the last decade, the system of inter-budgetary relations has undergone some changes, which  were  mainly  of  a  partial  nature.  The  result  is  an  established  model  with  a significant  and  non-decreasing  number  of  subsidized  regions,  a  high  level  of  income concentration, and subfederal budgets that differ significantly in the degree of income base diversification. At the same time, if half of the regions have an insufficient level of economic development to finance the necessary expenditures (relative to GRP), then for the other half this level is quite sufficient within the GRP potential, but the current tax system and the procedure for distributing tax revenues do not allow this, which requires replacing tax revenues with federal transfers. This model does not generate intention in supporting economic growth and economic activity in the regions and deprives them of incentives for development. The way out of this situation may be to take into account the formed macro-trends (changes in the place of the hydrocarbon economy, the place in the value chains, etc.) in the formation of an explicitly asymmetric model of intergovernmental relations, which may allow us to use the intention in economic development at the level of the subjects of the Russian Federation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos Penha

Abstract: This paper analyzes two ideas that inspired the Founding Fathers to design the American tax system: (i)the need to provide each member of the federation with sufficient financial resources which enable them to perform their functions without depending on each other; and (ii)the advantage of adopting a flexible system of taxation. We aim to provide a comparative approach which demonstrates that these ideas explain, in part, some of the failures of the Brazilian tax system, considering that, in Brazil, the fiscal system suffers from an imbalance between tax revenues and duties assigned to the states and municipalities; and that the Brazil’s system’s rigidity exacerbates the financial dependence of states and municipalities.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document