Tax Policy in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Publications in Leading Economic Journals

In the context of the world-long coronavirus pandemic, it is now essential that it is successful to overcome, break out painlessly and restore economic growth as soon as possible. Tax policy has a significant place in solving these problems. The purpose of the review is to identify, generalize and interpret information on the nature, degree of systemicity, depth, quality, discussion, existing trends and trends, synergy of tax policy research in the conditions of the coronacism in leading economic journals to identify problematic and understudied areas of knowledge that are important for tax science and practice, which require an early solution and whose development is the most in-demand in modern historical conditions. The scientific community in any scientific industry, including the tax industry, is required to build a single interconnected system of dynamically and effectively developing knowledge, rather than simply producing a set of interesting but disparate ideas. The research methods are a strategy of identifying keywords and search terms from the sphere of taxation and pandemic, screening sources and their primary filtering, content analysis of selected articles, critical reflection of groups of articles. As a result, it has been revealed that the palette of tax problems in the covid-19 environment explored in the publications of leading economic journals is fairly broad, but it goes beyond the front, not ahead of it develop models of various forward-looking scenarios for alternative tax options in force majeure; a clear interpretation of the pandemic realities of the pressing problems of the tax agenda of the present historical moment; writing new reviews as tax publications emerge between Cand19 and the exit from the medical and economic crisis.

Fiscal Policy and Optimal Taxation in Sierra Leone: Testing for Tax Smoothing Hypothesis

This paper empirically investigate whether the budget imbalances in Sierra Leone over the review period is consistent with optimal tax policy. The procedure involves testing if tax smoothing hypothesis hold for Sierra Leone. In this regard, three different empirical approaches were performed. Firstly, I examine the random walk property of the tax rate. The null hypothesis of non-stationarity of tax rate could not be rejected, which implies the tax rate follows random walk. Second, I examined whether changes in tax rate is predictable by regressing changes in tax rate by its own lagged values. The result shows that tax rate is unpredictable, as changes in tax cannot be determined by its lagged values. Finally, a VAR model was employed to examine whether tax rate can be predicted by its own lagged values together with changes in the government spending rate and the growth rate of real GDP. The results indicate that all the variables employed were found not be significant is predicating the tax rate. Overall, all the empirical estimations support the existence of tax smoothing over the sample period and that the budget inbalances over the review period is consistent with optimal tax policy.

Smoking-related behaviour changes among Korean men after the 2015 tobacco price increase: assessing the implications for the tobacco endgame using a reconstructed retrospective cohort study

ObjectivesTo examine the effect of Korea’s 2015 tax policy, discuss its effectiveness and limitations and present future directions for tax policy in the context of the tobacco endgame.DesignA retrospectively reconstructed cohort study.SettingKorea, August 2014–October 2015.ParticipantsThe study examined 41,605 male smokers aged 19 years and older who participated in the 2015 Korea Community Health Survey.Measures and analysisBinary and multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the impact of the tax policy on smoking-related behaviour. We adjusted for demographic and health-related variables.ResultsAmong 41,605 men who were smokers in 2014, 15,499 (35.85%, weighted) reported being affected by the price increase. Of all smokers, 1,772 (3.96%, weighted) reported quitting smoking because of the tobacco price increase. Others reduced their smoking amount (n=9,714, 22.48%, weighted) or made other changes such as switching brands (n=4,013, 9.41%, weighted). An additional 2,401 smokers (5.72%, weighted) quit smoking for reasons other than the tobacco price increase. Compared with those in the highest quintile of household income, the odds that those in the lowest quintile quit smoking due to the price increase were almost twice as high (OR=1.98, 95% CI 1.54 to 2.54).ConclusionsKorea’s 2015 tobacco price increase affected a significant number of smokers within a year, especially in the lowest income group, inducing some to quit or reduce their smoking amount. However, more smokers quit for reasons independent of the price change. Tax policy can effectively reduce smoking, but needs to be combined with other policies for optimal results.

EU TAX Strategy in the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article explores the EU's experience in finding tax revenues without compromising economic recovery. The EU's tax policy strategy envisages a stronger role for taxes in the development of a green, digital and inclusive Europe. It is recognized as fair to increase the tax burden on "polluters", digital and financial businesses, the largest corporations in the context of a single European economic space and fair tax competition of EU countries, excluding opportunities for tax base erosion. In 2021-2027 it is planned to increase the burden through the introduction of contributions on non-recycled plastic, border carbon adjustment mechanism, digital levy, financial transaction tax, revision of the CO2 emissions trading scheme. This could significantly complicate nonresident digital, financial and foreign economic activities in the EU, as well as the EU's international relations. The reform is controversial and requires revision, taking into account international agreements and the national interests of partner countries. The set of tactical measures involves updating the norms of legislation to meet the requirements of the digital economy, increasing trust and transparency in tax relations, convenience and simplicity of tax payments, and expanding cooperation between tax authorities of EU countries. The experience and prospects of the EU tax policy are significant for Russia both in terms of implementation of the best practices and in terms of timely response to possible dangers and threats related to the ongoing tax reforms in the EU.

The Analytical Review of Foreign Studies on the Impact of Taxation on Corporate Investment

The article provides an overview of foreign studies, mainly American ones, on the impact of tax policy on corporate investment. The research revealed the positive impact of maneuvering tax rates and tax incentives on investments in the corporate sector. At the macro level, special attention is paid to the Laffer curve and its modern applications. The possible use of the King - Fullerton model, as well as the active use of regression analysis in its various variations, are analyzed at the micro level. Besides, the taxation of income from investors' capital, including taxes on dividends, capital gains, and income from bonds are the ussies under analysis. The article also pointed out the complexity of tax systems in most countries, the importance of tax competition between different countries, the impact of tax policy on the structure as well as the cost of capital of companies. The authors identify the areas for further research at the macro and micro levels, emphasizing the lack of such research for developing countries and the need for the study of «natural experiments».