Shadow economy and tax evasion in the EU

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich Schneider ◽  
Konrad Raczkowski ◽  
Bogdan Mróz
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Tax Evasion ◽  
Shadow Economy ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Statistical Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
The Eu

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to explore size of the shadow economy of 31 European Countries in 2014 and size of the shadow economy of 28 European Union countries over 2003-2014 (in per cent of official GDP). An additional objective is to identify tax evasion, as the problem of all the EU countries, answering the questions how better combat the tax fraud. Design/methodology/approach – Estimates of the shadow economy for all 28 European Union countries and other three countries from Europe, i.e. Norway, Switzerland and Turkey – MIMIC method was applied. Findings – The average size of the shadow economy in 28 EU countries was 22.6 per cent in 2003 and decreased to 18.6 per cent (of official GDP) in 2014. We also consider the most important driving forces of the shadow economy. The biggest ones are with 14.6 per cent unemployment and self-employment, followed by tax morale with 14.5 per cent and GDP growth with 14.3 per cent. The proportion of tax evasion (accounting for indirect taxation and self-employment activities) was on average 4.2 per cent (of official GDP) in Poland, 1.9 per cent in Germany and 2.9 per cent in the Czech Republic. Research limitations/implications – The MIMIC statistics do not address a large part of the wholly illegal economy (of typically criminal nature) and, accordingly, it is not an absolute magnitude of the whole unofficial economy. However, it does not seem that other, alternative, methods of measuring the unofficial economy are better in individual terms. Practical implications – Current statistical research should lead to practical acceptance in the framework of need for developing better organizational & legal ways for multi-level governance within the European Union, leading to effective methods of counteracting – in particular intra-Union fraud. In addition, the presentation of a review of typology of the main theories and studies regarding the unofficial economy aspects relating to tax evasion constitutes a practical review of the pursued research areas. Social implications – Safeguarding the national economy as a whole, by seeking ways of reducing the scope of shadow economy. Originality/value – Both regarding presentation of the latest shadow economy estimates and typology of its main studies and theories.

Constitutional and Legal Restrictions in the European Union Countries in the Context of the COVID 19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
A. V. Kuznetsov
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
Legal Restrictions ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
The Eu

The article examines the norms of international law and the legislation of the EU countries. The list of main provisions of constitutional and legal restrictions in the European Union countries is presented. The application of the norms is described Human rights conventions. The principle of implementing legal acts in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is considered. A comparative analysis of legal restrictive measures in the States of the European Union is carried out.

Tax revenues in the European Union countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 79-99
Author(s):  
Agata Szymańska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Excise Duty ◽  
Tax Revenues ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
The Eu

The aim of this paper is to analyse tax revenues and examine similarities of selected tax revenues (mainly VAT, CIT, PIT and excise duty) in the European Union countries. The analysis of the EU members concerns the period between 2003 (i.e. the year preceding the biggest enlargement of the EU) and 2012 (due to data completeness). Tax rates and the structure of tax revenues in the EU countries were compared and then the cluster analysis was applied to assess the similarity of tax revenues. The analysis suggests that the process of tax harmonization, which took place in the period considered, did not exert a significant impact on the similarity of the structure of tax revenues in the EU countries. The structure seems to be still determined by e.g. social, economic or historical factors, which influenced the tax systems creation in particular EU countries.

scholarly journals MACROECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TAX ECONOMIC REFORMS IN EU COUNTRIES

2019 ◽  
pp. 36-45
Author(s):  
I. Marekha ◽  
V. Myrhorodska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Correlation Analysis ◽  
Environmental Taxes ◽  
Environmental Tax ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Macroeconomic Factors ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

The article substantiates the necessity to introduce systematic and effective tax eco-reforms in the context of resource-oriented economic development by the European Union countries. The performance and effectiveness of the reforms are estimated in relation to the main four groups of environmental taxes: energy taxes, pollution taxes, resource taxes and transport taxes. The macroecological policy of the European Union countries is the object of the undertaken analysis. The article examines the impact of macroeconomic factors on environmental taxes across the EU, using a correlation analysis toolkit. Four groups of macroeconomic parameters were selected for analysis: internal macroeconomic factors (nominal GDP, real GDP, inflation, business cycle stage, budget deficit, energy consumption level); external macroeconomic factors (government debt, exports, foreign direct investments); institutional macroparameters (environmental culture, shadow economy, trust in government) and fiscal macroparameters (tax culture and fiscal freedom). The economic interpretation of the obtained correlates is given. Based on the correlation analysis, stimulators and de-stimulators of tax environmental reforms across the EU were identified. It is established that the factors that positively influence on the tax environmental reforms are the overwhelming majority of the analyzed factors. The formation of indicators of the effectiveness of tax environmental reforms is undertaken for six countries of the Community. In particular, the analysis covers three economic leaders (Germany, the United Kingdom and France) and three leading EU countries in the field of environmental tax collection (Latvia, Greece and Slovenia). The article presents approaches to improving the assessment of the effectiveness of tax environmental reforms based on the consideration of fiscal (budget-filling) and reproductive (multiplicative) functions of environmental taxes. In this regard, the environmental tax multiplier and accelerator, as well as the GDP elasticity coefficient for environmental taxes, were calculated for the analyzed group of countries. The criteria of economic efficiency of tax eco-reforms are proposed. Keywords: environmental taxes, macroeconomic effect, macro-environmental policy, multiplier, accelerator, elasticity

scholarly journals Improvement of international rail transportation of benzene between Ukraine and the European Union countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 294 ◽  
pp. 04010
Author(s):  
Vasyl Gaba ◽  
Tetiana Hrushevska ◽  
Oleg Strelko ◽  
Anna Kyrychenko ◽  
Marina Rudyuk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rolling Stock ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Railway Transportation ◽  
Technical Standards ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
Cargo Transportation ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Eu

It is considered the possibility of improvement of the international railway transportation of benzene and other related cargoes between Ukraine and the European Union countries for the carriage of these cargoes in tank containers. The volume of chemical cargo transportation to the EU countries to the rolling stock types for 2018 has been analyzed. The research of the effectiveness of organization of international transportation according to the criterion of the total hours of downtime by wagons under accumulation. The mathematical model of chemical cargoes transportation by wagons, wagon groups and container trains with the accumulation to the technical standards on the cargo diversions was elaborated. The models take into account the unevenness of the wagon arrivals to the accumulation points and observance of the number of wagons to the established norm. A comparison of the effectiveness of the two models of the organization of the chemical cargo delivery and it was defined a more effective version of transportation. It has been established that for more efficient using of the rolling stock and for the rolling stock circulation decreasing is the cargo transportation by trains which consist of cisterns or/and tank container carriages. The influence of the components of the rolling stock circulation and its value are analyzed. The research of the cost of benzene transportation in cisterns and tank containers for the individual diversions was studied. According to the research results the cost of benzene transportation by platforms of the railways ownership is less than twice in comparison to private cisterns and tank-containers of the Ukrainian Railways fleet. These recommendations will improve the process of transportation and increase of volumes of international cargo by railroads between Ukraine and the EU countries.

scholarly journals Multidimensional comparative analysis of the competitive capacity of the European Union countries and geographical regions

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Cheba ◽  
Katarzyna Szopik-Depczyńska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Comparisons ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Basic Question ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
The Eu

Research background: The basic question we ask is whether is it possible to talk in today’s globalizing world about the uniform of the competitiveness of the economies? Posing such questions is particularly important in the case of political and economic structures such as the European Union. The competitiveness of the economies is now one of the most frequently discussed topics. In this work, due to the context of the conducted research (international comparisons of the EU countries’ economies) the competitiveness of international economies will be considered in terms of international competitive capacity. In addition to the problems associated with defining this concept, there are also important dilemmas concerned with the measurement of the competitiveness. In the performed comparative analyses of European economies the research results presented within reports of „Global Competitiveness Index” will be used. Purpose of the article: The main purpose of the paper is to conduct a multidimensional comparative analysis of the competitive capacity of the European Union countries and geo-graphical regions of Europe. Methods: In the paper, to study the spatial differentiation of the EU countries and geograph-ical regions of Europe in the context of their competitive capacity, the taxonomic measure of development based on median vector Weber was used. Findings & Value added: As a result, the classification and the typological groups of EU countries and geographical regions of Europe calculated on the basis of the features describing their competitive capacity arises. The value added of these research is the analysis of competitive capacity conducted not only for EU countries, but also for geographical regions of Europe. In the paper, the verification of criteria using by World Economic Forum to assess the competitive capacity of EU economies was also conducted. In this area of the research, because of high level of correlation, many features from initial database were deleted.

scholarly journals Społeczeństwo XXI wieku wobec zagrożenia islamskim terroryzmem

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-84
Author(s):  
Kamila Kasperska-Kurzawa
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mass Scale ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
The World ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
The Eu

SOCIETY OF THE 21ST CENTURY AGAINST THE THREAT OF ISLAMIC TERRORISMThe subject matter includes the issue of transformation in the consciousness of the societies of European Union countries, but also communities in other areas of the world, perception of the phenomenon of migration to the territories of native countries, mainly in the European Union. The period of rapid socio-political changes in Islamic states, as well as the outbreak of civil war in 2011 in Syria, was the largest stimulator of migration movements from the Middle East, especially those covered by military operations in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of migrants continued to reach EU countries. Germany widely opened the door of its state and accepted the largest number of migrants. Some countries, such as Poland or Hungary, refused to accept migrants from countries with an Islamic origin. Migration on such a mass scale caused many social problems. The perceived sense of security of the community has deteriorated considerably in the EU countries where the most migrants came. The decline in the sense of security included areas not only of safety for life and health, but also concerns about reducing the level of social status or increasing unemployment. However, the biggest threat to the community of the EU countries, and many other countries in the world was ahuge increase in terrorist attacks, where the attackers came from orthodox Islamist groups. It should be added that the majority of migrants were Muslims. Another phenomenon also affecting the reduction of the level of perceptible security of European societies was the reactivation of political groups that in their ideologies presented the slogans of populism, nationalism, racism, or even fascism. There has been a clear polarization of Western societies, where until now they were arefuge of democracy, tolerance and values for which they fought for years. Undoubtedly, the politics of Erdogan, the president of Turkey, and the president of Russia, Putin, also influencedthestate of security of societies, and tried to influence EU decisions with their actions. Russia, let the annexation of Crimea and activities in Ukraine be left in peace, and Turkey, to force the EU to acceleratethe admission of this country to the EU. Also calling up the so-called Islamic state posed a huge threat to the security of the communities of European Union countries with attacks inspired by this terrorist group.

scholarly journals Institutional Arrangement for Macroproprudential Policy – On Differences Across the EU Countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Matysek-Jędrych
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Macroprudential Policy ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
The Eu

There is a growing consensus among both economists‑academics and policymakers that there was at least one missing element of the financial safety net during the Global Financial Crisis. This element, which will probably improve financial stability (or protect against financial instability), is the macroprudential orientation in regulatory and supervisory frameworks. The main scope of the paper is the institutional dimensions of macroprudential policy. The principal purpose of the paper is to identify and assess, on a comparative, cross‑EU‑country basis, existing practices and developments in structuring a new dimension of the financial stability policy, i.e., a macroprudential one. The paper builds on existing theoretical considerations and the author’s own empirical survey of country practices in applying a macroprudential framework. A comparative, cross‑country analysis and a comparison of different sub‑indices and overall index values are the basis for verifying hypotheses and empirically disentangling the institutional differences between macroprudential policy regimes in European Union countries. The paper sheds light on recent trends in macroprudential policy governance and qualitative aspects (democratic accountability and transparency), with special attention to the position of a central bank across the European Union countries. The conducted research is a basis for constructing ratings of macroprudential authority accountability and transparency across the EU countries, which gives an indication of the overall quality of the institutional arrangements.

scholarly journals SELF-EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGNERS AS AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION ON THE LABOR MARKET IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 178-183
Author(s):  
Valentinas Navickas ◽  
Eva Grmanová ◽  
Waldemar Gajda
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
The Other ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Innovative Solution ◽  
The Eu

The main aim of this article is to identify certain specificity in self-employment of foreigners in EU countries and to find out whether the differences in self-employment of foreigners between countries are diminishing. Within the main objective, we have set two sub-objectives. The first sub-objective is to compare EU countries on the basis of the following indicators: 1/ number of self-employed foreigners and 2/ share of self-employed foreigners in employed persons from foreign countries. The second sub-objective is to determine whether EU countries converge in the number of the share of self-employed foreigners in the number of employed persons from foreign countries. We have confirmed that the countries have a tendency to convergence in regard to the share of self-employed foreigners in employed persons from foreign countries. We assume that this tendency can also be due to the pressure of the labour market that shows a lack of labour force. The share of self-employed migrants is relatively high in Eastern Europe. On the other hand, their increase is below average compared to the EU.

Effects of governance on entrepreneurship: European Union vs non-European Union

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Jesús Rodríguez-Gulías ◽  
Vítor Manuel de Sousa Gabriel ◽  
David Rodeiro-Pazos
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Government Effectiveness ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Governance Indicators ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of six governance indicators on the rate of creation of new companies between countries that are members of the European Union (EU) and those that are not. H1 states that the various dimensions of governance help to explain the immediate creation of new businesses in European and non-European countries. H2 states that the various dimensions of governance help to explain the deferred creation of new businesses in European and non-European countries. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses two types of analyses: firstly, univariate analysis, which is a descriptive statistics of the dependent, independent and control variables, and the results of a t-test; and secondly, multivariate analysis, which estimates using the fixed-effects estimator under the specifications previously raised for the subsample of 28 EU countries and for the subsample of 103 non-EU countries during the period 2004-2014. Findings The results show that the variables of governance are not significantly higher in the EU, although the density of the enterprises is. Within the governance indicators, government effectiveness is significant in the EU. The results obtained for the EU confirmed H1and H2, with a significant positive effect of government effectiveness on entrepreneurship, while the other governance variables were not significant in the EU subsample. The results obtained for non-EU countries suggest no significant immediate effects (H1) and a slightly significant delayed effect of rule of law on the entrepreneurship (H2) concerned. Research limitations/implications Future research in this area could consider introducing another regional division or other types of methodology as variables affect models. Practical implications Governance can be defined as the ability of a government and its public institutions to provide services and design, and implement rules, which is a factor that affects the creation of new companies. However, the effect of governance could differ depending on the country and its economic environment. This paper analyses the effect of six governance indicators on the rate of creation of new companies considering two different geographic regions as countries are presumably heterogeneous. Therefore, these results indicate that the effect of governance variables on entrepreneurship differs according to the region. Social implications The effect of governance variables on entrepreneurship according to the region is also known. Originality/value This study applied panel data analysis to two samples of countries during the period 2004-2014, one formed by 28 countries of the EU and the other by 103 non-EU countries. No other paper considers this number of countries for this period. To assess the impact of governance on the creation of new companies, this paper considered the existence of immediate and deferred effects of governance on entrepreneurship.

scholarly journals The Implications of Making Tax Crimes a Predicate Crime for Money Laundering in the EU

2021 ◽  
pp. 236-271
Author(s):  
Lucia Rossel ◽  
Brigitte Unger ◽  
Jason Batchelor ◽  
Jan van Koningsveld
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
Tax Evasion ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
The Law ◽  
Crucial Part ◽  
The Eu ◽  
The Way ◽  
Legal Variables

This chapter sheds light on the divergence of tax crimes and money laundering laws across Europe after the implementation of the 4th Anti Money Laundering Directive. Laws are a crucial part of the tax environment as they are one of the rules under which the tax ecosystem operates. Taxpayers should pay their taxes following the law, and tax experts should advise them within the realm of it. The chapter sees the 4th AMLD as a shock that put money laundering regulation inside the tax ecosystem, and the way that countries implement this in their regulation is the response to this shock; it uses an innovative comparative approach that involves the analysis of tax evasion through an empirical legal lens. The chapter includes a dataset built by the authors with the legislation of all European Union countries regarding tax crimes and money laundering, as well as other relevant legal variables.

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