Is the Supply of Charitable Donations Fixed? Evidence from Deadly Tornadoes

Do natural disasters increase charitable giving or simply reallocate a fixed supply of donations? We study this question using Internal Revenue Service data in the context of deadly tornadoes. We find that among zip codes located in the same state but more than 20 miles away from a tornado’s path, donations by households increase by about $2 million per tornado fatality. We find no negative effects of tornado fatalities on donations to charities located in these zip codes. The results imply that giving in response to new needs need not come at the expense of other causes. (JEL D64, L31, Q54)

The Effects of Management Practices on Effective Tax Rates: Evidence from Ecuador

This paper examines the effects of management practices on effective tax rates (ETR) in a sample of medium and large manufacturing firms in Ecuador. We use a novel data set on management practice scores matched with administrative tax data from the Superintendence of Companies and the Internal Revenue Services of Ecuador based on firms' tax filings. We find that better management practices are positively associated with effective tax rates, defined as the share of tax obligations to profits. This result is robust under various specifications controlling for different covariates, and to different measures of effective tax rates. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the use of fiscal incentives is positively associated with higher effective tax rates. However, firms that use fiscal incentives are able to fatten or reduce their effective tax rates as management practices improved. Overall, our findings suggest that government-sponsored policies that seek to promote better management practices may be self-sustained, if the additional tax revenue expected from better management practices through higher profits is able to cover the cost of the programs.

Financial Administration of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) Among Barangays in Bayugan City, Agusan de Sur, Philippines

In the Republic Act 7160 otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991 has considerably altered the nature and participation of the local government units in the pursuit of national development. Considered that the barangays is the smallest political system in the Philippines were given the responsibility and authority to implement barangay development of their Internal Revenue Allotment. Hence, despite the allocation for the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) to barangays for the development, problems affecting the administration of such fund are so obvious. The system of administering the barangay development programs has evolved along with the changing structure of our government. The study aimed to describe the financial administration of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of barangays in Bayugan City. The cross-sectional survey research design was used frequency counts and distributions were utilized to present and analyze the data gathered. The sample barangays were taken through purposive sampling using income as the main criterion. Primary and secondary data thru the questionnaire and documents. The allocations of the 43 barangays of Bayugan City tend to increase. The barangays had also sourced their funding needs from sources other than IRA or alternative sources. Recommendations, there must be an in-depth review on the procedure of allocating the IRA among barangays in Bayugan City. Likewise, an in-depth review on the required itemized budget be carried out of expenditures for barangays must be carried out such that barangays prone to calamities may have options in regard to their annual allocation; The barangay officials should strengthen further the participation of all barangay constituents in determining the priority projects and similar studies should be conducted in order to know further the extent of the strengthens and weakness.

A PHILIPPINE MODEL FOR INFORMATION SHARING FOR EFFECTIVE REVENUE COLLECTION THROUGH E-GOVERNANCE

—Local revenues are the backbone by which local governments anchor the sustenance of their operations, functions and projects within their jurisdiction. Local Government Units (LGU’s) in the Philippines depend heavily on local revenue generation- for their development. Although having the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) given by the national government through which they support their activities and promote their growth, each local government unit through its treasury office rely on an effective local tax administration and collection system in order to get the best possible resource to serve this purpose. Nevertheless, the problem of local revenue tax collection is a perennial problem and this is traced to many factors that play a part in the inability of the local treasury office to exercise their function to the fullest merit. Optimum tax collection efforts can be enhanced by the local treasury office should it have the ability to synchronize information records which allows the treasury office to check and verify the records taxpayers paying business taxes. Access to this knowledge will give the local treasury the capability to maximize tax collection effectively. And because the local treasury organization like any other government organization is structured to become compatible with new technology development to help it faced with changes in its environment, present day technology in terms of information is now made part of that response. Verification of accuracy of payments through collaborative inter agency efforts is now available. This requires three agencies to collaborate in comparing actual gross sales/receipts from declared gross sales/receipts based on the gathered documents like the books of account, audited financial statements, vat returns and the official receipts as proof of payment of the local business taxes. Three agencies have been mandated to collaborate on this endeavor: the Local City Treasury, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Secur