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Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
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Tax at a Glance for ECA CountriesThe tax-at-a-glance provides an overview
 of the tax policy and tax administration system as well as
 main trends in tax reform for each Europe and Central Asia
 (ECA) country. In the ECA region, two historic transitions
 since 1990 (a political transition from totalitarianism
 toward democracy and an economic transition from socialism
 toward free market systems) required a fundamental change in
 the role of the state, from controlling virtually all major
 economic assets to providing public goods and facilitating a
 largely privately-owned competitive economy. This change in
 the role of the state required a major downsizing and
 reorientation of public spending and a complete overhaul of
 tax policy and administration. Formidable challenges existed
 in setting up an efficient and fair tax system in ECA.
 First, voluntary compliance and self-filing, two important
 pillars in a modern tax system, were completely absent.
 Second, tax evasion reached a high level due to the
 inefficiency and weak management of the tax administration.
 Third, income was unevenly distributed within ECA countries.
 The economic and political power of rich taxpayers prevented
 tax reforms and this partially led to inefficient and unfair
 tax systems. Fourth, tax administration was very
 inefficient, with a poorly educated and poorly trained
 staff. Modern technologies had not been fully deployed in
 tax offices. Due to administrative and financial
 limitations, statistical and tax offices have difficulty in
 providing reliable statistics. Furthermore, low level of
 transparency in several tax administrations in ECA countries
 makes it harder to collect accurate information on tax
 performance. The poor quality of data often prevents
 policymakers and economists from assessing potential
 problems and challenges to existing tax systems.
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Incentives and InvestmentsThis paper analyzes how investment
 incentives may or may not be used to foster private
 investment, particularly in developing countries. As
 practitioners and policymakers can attest, political economy
 exerts a powerful influence on incentives. Many incentives
 especially generous ones have persisted because of lobbying
 by special interests and politicians' need to curry
 favor. Yet little research has been done on how political
 economy affects incentive policy. Second, the paper sheds
 light on the role that political economy plays in the
 popularity of incentives and the related shortcomings.
 Incentives are sometimes used to dole out favors to
 investors, so investors who benefit from incentives resist
 attempts to eliminate them. This paper suggests a way to
 tackle such problems. Third, the paper compiles good
 practices on managing and administering incentives in
 developing countries, drawing on government and private
 sector experiences. Finally, the paper provides policymakers
 with a framework for analyzing the efficacy of investment
 incentives based on the sector and level of development
 involved, and suggests reforms for moving toward best practice.
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Pakistan - Tax Policy Report : Tapping Tax Bases for Development - Full ReportThe main message of this report is that
 Pakistan can take measures to increase the tax to gross
 domestic product (GDP) ratio by around 3.5 percentage points
 over the next five years. In order to ensure a healthy
 long-run economic development, Pakistan needs to embrace
 substantial changes in tax policy aimed at increasing the
 buoyancy of the tax system, broadening the tax bases,
 reducing distortions and phasing out exemptions. Such tax
 reforms are also required to deal with the risks stemming
 from sustained large budget deficits. Failing to act sooner
 rather than later, only makes the problem more difficult to
 address without considerable instability, raises the
 probability of fiscal and financial disarray at some point
 in the future, and runs the risks of further constraining
 policy flexibility in future. This report highlights design
 ingredients for a comprehensive reform of tax policy in
 Pakistan. In the final analysis, the success of tax reform
 will depend less on the mechanism of taxation and more on
 the politics of taxation. Beyond adequate administrative
 resources and an implementation strategy, this will require
 a clear political recognition of the importance of the task
 and the willingness to persist with tax reform over the long haul.