Papua New Guinea's tax performance, 1965-77

The PNG Goverment increased its tax ratio from 6.6 to 15% over the period, 1965–1977. Estimates of the buoyancy and the elasticity of the major taxes are also high compared to those obtained for other less developed countries. There are significant differences between the tax bouyancy and the tax elasticity to show that considerable efforts were made to collect more tax revenue through discretionary fiscal policies. However, a possible weakness exists in these discretionary policies, in that the collection of more revenue was brought about mainly by raising the tax rates of the existing major taxes and little attention was paid to the search for new tax bases.     

Environmental regulation and responses of local governments

In 1998, China approved the setup of two control zones and implemented stringent environmental regulation in these zones. This policy enables us to use the difference-in-difference method to investigate local governments' responses to environmental regulation. We find that tough environmental regulation increases tax rate but does not affect local government expenditure. Among the mechanisms through which environmental regulation positively affects tax rate are the negative effects of environmental regulation on investment of fixed assets, number and total profits of above-scale industrial firms in dirty industries of TCZ cities. In addition, the effect of environmental regulation on tax rate is positively related to policy strength and proportion of the secondary industry. Moreover, tough environmental regulation increases the shares of revenue from enterprises and agricultural taxes in budgetary revenue, but decreases the share of value-added tax in budgetary revenue. These findings highlight additional cost of environmental regulation (aside from those mentioned in literature), including increased burdens of the private sector that would lead to large distortions, and aggravated unfair distribution of taxes. The additional cost should be considered when evaluating the environmental policy.     

Mobilizing non-conventional budgetary resources in Asia in the 21st century

The 21st century will be characterized by the curtailment of tax policy autonomy and high locational elasticities for economic activities. Resource mobilization tasks for Asian governments will therefore be far more complex. With respect to traditional taxes, base broadening and modernization of tax administration will have to be primary instruments of raising additional revenue rather than rate increases.The paper suggests that Asian countries will need to substantially enhance their capacity to benefit from innovative instruments of resource mobilization. These include public asset restructuring, treasury management, and revenue from creation of property rights, regulatory levies and more effective use of cost recovery and user charges. Resource mobilization and delivery of public services will have to be increasingly linked. An Asia wide tax forum to address common concerns, such as tax avoidance will need to be considered.     

Fiscal Faux Pas?: An Analysis of the Revenue Implications of Trade Liberalization

This paper examines the argument that trade liberalization depresses tax revenue/GDP ratios in developing countries. This occurs because the structural characteristics associated with developing countries limit their ability to make the transition from trade to domestic taxes. Using a panel of 80 developing and industrialized countries over 1970–98, the econometric analysis carried out employs a fixed-effects regression framework to examine the evidence. The results indicate that low-income and upper middle-income countries have experienced declining tax revenues as a result of falling income and trade tax revenues and that structural characteristics have been significant in explaining the decline.     

Budget Structure and Pollution Control： A Cross-country Analysis and Implications for China

In the published literature, the differences in environmental performance across countries are typically explained using the Environmental Kuznets Curve. The Environmental Kuznets Curve states that pollution initially increases with economic growth. Once GDP per capita reaches a certain level, the relationship reverses. In the present paper, we provide an alternative hypothesis, where budget structure plays an important role in explaining the variations in pollution across the world.＂ the lower the business-related taxes as a share of total tax revenue, the higher the property tax in total tax revenue and the higher the ratio of public health expenditure in total expenditure, then the stronger the incentive of pollution control and the lower the pollution level. Our empirical findings reveal that the budget structure does have an important impact on pollution control. The policy implication of this research is that effective control of environmental pollution requires changes in tax structure and expenditure assignment. This research has important policy implications for China ＂s tax system reform and pollution control efforts.     

Property Tax in Urban China

This paper examines China＇s urban housing sector and proposes that property, tax reform be undertaken. Specifically, China should significantly reduce taxes on transactions and introduce property taxes during the possession of houses. This will increase housing affordability as a result of lower transaction costs, reduce speculation because of the higher opportunity cost of holding vacant houses, stabilize the fiscal system by generating more sustainable tax revenue, and improve the efficiency and fairness of the property tax system according to the principles of ＂ability-to-pay＂ and ＂user pays＂.     

我国税收政策影响初次分配的实证分析

近年来,在我国经济保持持续高速增长的同时,我国居民的收入分配不平等现象也在加剧。税收政策历来都是各国调节收入分配的重要政策杠杆。根据1994～2009年我国的基尼系数、税收收入占GDP比重的时间序列数据,所建立的多元线性回归模型表明,我国现行的以间接税为主体的税制结构,整体上拉大了不同阶层的收入差距。增值税、营业税等税种与基尼系数呈正相关,个人所得税、财产税等直接税也由于征收规模过小、征管存在漏洞等原因,没有充分发挥出直接税应有的收入调节作用。     

Bond Markets Initiation and Tax Revenue Mobilization in Developing Countries

We analyze the relationship between the introduction of a sovereign bond market (BM) and tax revenue mobilization behavior, using a large sample of 119 developing countries. Propensity Scores Matching estimations reveal that BM participation significantly fosters domestic tax revenue mobilization. Moreover, we find that this favorable effect is sensitive to BM countries' characteristics, namely the stance of monetary and fiscal policies, the exchange rate regime, the level of economic development, and the degree of financial openness and financial development. Finally, our results show that BM participation fosters internal taxes and reduces their instability, compared to international trade taxes. These findings highlight the strength of BM in promoting structural reforms in developing countries, through encouraging them to increase their tax effort and even by contributing to some extent to the fiscal transition process.     

Alternative fiscal regimes for mining in developing countries

The government revenue from foreign-owned mineral projects in developing countries can be extracted through a variety of alternative tools. This paper scrutinizes the implications for the government and for the private investor, respectively, of fiscal regimes relying mainly on royalties, income taxes and government equity participation. The conclusion of the analysis is that an income tax biased regime offers greater advantages to governments of mineral rich developing countries interested in an efficient and development-promoting expansion of the mineral sector with foreign investor involvement, than do regimes biased in favor of royalties and government equity take.     

Tax Incentives for Business Investment: A Primer for Policy Makers in Developing Countries

The use of tax incentives is widespread even though the available empirical evidence on the cost-effectiveness of such incentives in stimulating investment is highly inconclusive. This paper is primarily intended as a primer on the use of tax incentives for policy makers, especially those in developing countries. It discusses the objectives, cost-effectiveness, and transparency of implementing tax incentives; assesses the comparative merits of alternative forms of such incentives; and provides a review of the empirical literature. Its main conclusions are that the justification for the use of tax incentives should be limited to the rectification of market failures, and that the preferred form of tax incentives are those that provide for faster recovery of investment costs.     

促进收入公平分配的税收政策研究

税收作为国家宏观调控的重要手段之一,应当在调节收入分配差距方面发挥积极作用。本文从"双主体"税制结构出发,通过分析引起收入差距的税收原因,总结现有税种调节作用的效果和不足,从流转税、个人所得税、财产税及社会保障税等几方面提出增强税收公平收入功能的政策建议。     

从我国房产税发展及发达国家经验看房产税改革

房产税是中外各国政府广为开征的古老的税种,它成为各国政府财政收入的重要来源。中共十八届三中全会提出要深化财税体制改革,加快房地产税立法并适时推进改革,这说明我国房产税改革将会进一步加快实施。比较研究上海、重庆房产税试点情况以及发达国家的房产税税制设计,对于我国房产税下一阶段的改革具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Allocating and taxing rights to state-owned minerals

Is Indonesia using the most effective possible strategies to derive revenue from its mineral resources? Auctions and work program bidding are the main ways of allocating mineral leases. In addition to the company taxes applied to all companies, governments can raise revenue from minerals owned by the state through auctions, royalties and rent taxes paid by private firms, and through dividends from state-owned firms. Indonesia uses work program bidding to allocate leases, and its production-sharing contracts are roughly equivalent to a rent tax at a high rate. This paper considers these options for raising revenues from mineral resources. It argues that efficiency and government revenue would both be increased if Indonesia relaxed direct controls on the operations of mining companies, and allocated leases by means of auctions, combined with a much lower rate of rent tax or, better still, a royalty.     

Effects of financial inclusion on tax revenue mobilization: Evidence from WAEMU countries

Financial inclusion remains at the heart of governments concerns. By creating favorable conditions for access to a diversified range of adapted financial products and services at affordable costs for the populations, financial inclusion generates important opportunities that could lead to increased tax revenue mobilization. This paper analyzes the effects of financial inclusion on tax revenue mobilization, using panel data from West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries over the period 2006–2019. The findings suggest that financial inclusion positively and significantly influences government's tax revenue. Moreover, by looking at the effects of disaggregated financial inclusion dimensions (access, use, and affordability) on various components of tax revenue, we find that the estimated coefficients on the subcomponents of financial inclusion are statistically significant. Results also indicate that the magnitude of effect of financial inclusion is higher on indirect taxes compared to direct tax revenues. This research recommends that policy-makers should prioritize financial inclusion in their policies and development agenda through National Financial Inclusion Strategies (NFIS) because it can increase countries' resource mobilization and help them to build fiscal resilience.     

是土地供应量与房地产税赋提高了房价吗

自分税制实施后,“土地财政”成为我国地方政府获取收入以支撑财政支出的主要选择,而与此同时房价也在不断上涨。中央政府从民生角度要求地方政府对房价实施调控,地方政府则主要通过调整土地供给量和房地产税税赋来施加影响。土地供应量和税赋会影响供需双方从而影响房价,反过来房价又会影响税收收入及开发商对土地的需求,进而影响社会民生。本文对我国东、中、西部地区住房价格和土地供给量、房地产税税赋之间的关系进行分析,探讨各地区的住房价格上涨原因。通过构建住房价格和土地供给量、房地产税税赋之间的PVAR模型,利用格兰杰因果检验、脉冲分析和方差分解方法来透视地方政府行为对住房价格的影响。分析结果显示,地方政府行为和房价之间存在着联动关系,但在推动住房价格上涨的原因上存在着区域差异：在东部地区,土地供应量影响房价;中部地区,二者联合推动了房价上涨。而在西部地区,房地产税税赋对房价的影响明显。在政策建议上,对地价推动房价的地区要从丰富住房来源和数量入手,而税赋影响房价的地区则要完善相关税制改革。     

Bribery in Indonesia: some evidence from micro-level data

This paper outlines and tests a model in which firms seek to reduce the cost of taxes and regulatory compliance by offering bribes to government officials. It finds that firms' profitability (scaled by production costs) largely determines both the amounts paid and the time spent negotiating bribes with officials. Competition between arms of the bureaucracy for bribe income seems to be a result of decentralisation, but the analysis suggests that this competition would lead to a spreading of bribes among a larger number of officials rather than to a significant increase in their total amount. Local governments may be able to raise more revenue by reducing the number of taxes and regulations and using part of the increased revenue to raise the salaries of officials, while devoting more effort to restraining corrupt behaviour. But progress may be blocked by central government tax officials increasing their demands for bribes.     

Optimal Export Taxes with an Endogenous Location

Export tax policy is one of the most debated issues in many developing countries. Those countries with strong natural advantages in the production of primary commodities, such as agricultural and livestock products, coffee, jute, rubber, and others, have attained at particular times a position as dominant suppliers in international trade. They have often used export taxes on those commodities to obtain foreign exchange and/or government tax revenues. This paper provides a normative analysis to examine how the inclusion of economic space affects export tax policy and to compare optimal export taxes under endogenous location with optimal export taxes under exogenous location, both in the short run and in the long run.     

Indonesia's new tax reform: Potential and direction

This study aims to provide direction for policy and provide input to improve the quality of taxation services, by emphasizing and analyzing the existing tax potential and recommending a taxation reformation plan in accordance with fiscal sustainability and efforts to increase the level of Indonesian competence both for the transition period and in the long term. The result of the study has indicated that there is still the opportunity to increase national revenue without increasing rates and by increasing the capacity of tax administration and expanding the tax base, tax collection/revenue will increase. There are a number of indicators that illustrate this, such as the ratio of tax revenue to the GDP which is still relatively low compared to other countries, wide scope for increasing value added tax (VAT), PIT and CIT revenue productivity, etc. Our best estimation for potential tax revenue expansion for the next 2–3 years would be 2.1% of GDP where PIT and CIT contributed more than half of that expansion.     

论我国税收征管体制之合并

我国国税、地税机构分设、分征分管的税收征管体制的合理性一直存在争议。现行体制存在权力交叉,税收征管成本和税务遵从成本双高等问题。税收征管体制合并是重大制度创新,有利于提高税收行政效率和完善分税制改革,降低"税收交易成本"。税收征管体制合并要贯彻深化行政审批制度改革的精神,精简税政,并在若干自贸区先行先试,逐步实现。     

The Distributional Effects of the Trump and Clinton Tax Proposals

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the Democratic and Republican candidates for President of the U.S. in 2016, proposed several changes in the federal tax code. Hillary Clinton would add a personal income tax surcharge of 4% on high annual incomes, limit the tax benefits of non-charitable deductions, set a minimum tax rate of 30% on taxpayers earning more than one million dollars a year, increase the tax rates on capital gains for taxpayers in the top tax bracket, and expand the base of the estate tax. Donald Trump would reduce the number of personal income tax rates, increase the standard personal deduction, cut all taxes on business income to no more than 15%, and abolish the inheritance tax. Using a tax calculator model, we estimate the static effects of these very different changes. Over a ten-year period, Clinton’s proposals would raise federal tax revenue by a total of $816 billion, an increase of 1.9% over projected baseline revenue, while Trump’s tax changes would lower tax revenue by $9.8 trillion. Clinton’s higher taxes would reduce incomes and revenue somewhat, while Trump’s tax cuts would potentially boost output substantially. Using an extended simulation model, we find that 86% of the incremental tax burden of Clinton’s tax increases would fall on those in the top tenth of the income distribution. Most other taxpayers would see only minor changes in their tax burdens, and the revenue and redistributive effects of her proposed changes are relatively modest. Meanwhile, 70% of Trump’s tax cuts would go to those in the top decile, and the effects are large, with gains of over $15,000 annually per person for this group, compared to gains of less than $500 per person for the poorest 40% of the population. On tax policy, the two candidates propose strikingly different policies.