Person:
Lucas-Mas, Cristian Óliver

Profile Picture
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Degrees
ORCID
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated: February 24, 2024
Biography
Cristian Óliver Lucas-Mas is a senior economist specializing in tax policy and administration at the World Bank, where he has provided technical assistance and tax advice to more than 30 countries since 2016. He has more than 20 years of experience in international taxation as an attorney- at-law, economist, consultant, researcher, and university professor. He was admitted to practice law in New York and Spain, where he started his career in a leading law firm and later opened his own private legal practice, specializing in international tax planning. In academia, he has held various teaching positions at universities in Spain, the United States, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and has published extensively in international tax journals. As a consultant, he has worked as a tax policy adviser for the International Monetary Fund and as an adviser for the General Authority of Zakat and Tax of Saudi Arabia. He holds a PhD in tax law and public finance from the University of Barcelona, an LLM from Harvard Law School, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he is a graduate of the International Tax Program at Harvard Law School. In 2000, he received the First Prize of the National Awards for Academic Excellence in Legal Studies from the government of Spain, and the Harvard Kennedy School named him a Public Service Fellow in 2007.

Filters

2020 - 20255
Reset filters

Settings

Statistics
Citations

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Revenue Administration Handbook
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-02-22) Junquera-Varela, Raúl Félix; Lucas-Mas, Cristian Óliver
    Revenue Administration Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the structure and management of tax and customs administrations, covering topics such as tax policy design considerations that impact tax administration, institutional setup and strategic planning, analytical capacities and maturity models, core business processes, and tax sanctions. It also presents pioneering work in the field of digital transformation and how to build data science capabilities, including a roadmap for policy makers and tax officials on how to incorporate and manage disruptive technologies, such as machine learning, into building modern revenue administrations while taking into account their respective maturity levels. This practical manual provides examples from real-life World Bank projects so that policy makers, tax officials, information technology experts, and information and communication technology providers can better understand the needs of revenue administrations to design and implement the most appropriate technology solutions. This reference work is intended to serve as a tool to facilitate the progress and modernization of tax and customs administrations worldwide, and to reach not only tax experts and policy makers, but also other government officials, businesses and academic communities, as well as the larger public, since all are relevant stakeholders with an active role in day-to-day revenue administration operations. ------------------------- “This is a very timely and useful reference for tax practitioners and stakeholders, coming at a time when tax administrators continue to grapple with the challenge of how to accelerate the modernization of technology systems to remain effective in a rapidly advancing and technology driven business environment.” MOSES WASIKE, Senior financial management specialist, World Bank “This is an impressive piece of work that pulls together many different strains on tax administration.” JEFFREY OWENS, Director, Global Tax Policy Center, Vienna University “Applying several technologies discussed in this handbook in an innovative manner will definitely help leapfrog countries to pursue a digital transformation agenda, especially in the areas of efficiency, productivity, and citizen satisfaction.”
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Digital Transformation of Tax and Customs Administrations
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-06-30) Junquera-Varela, Raúl Félix; Lucas-Mas, Cristian Óliver; Krsul, Ivan; Calderon Yksic, Vladimir Omar; Arce Rodriguez, Paola
    Domestic resource mobilization has become a core priority of the sustainable development agenda for tax and customs administrations. Information systems can play a critical role in revenue mobilization, which may create the much-needed fiscal space for maneuver and allow for more spending on all the things that drive potential growth over the medium term. New technologies can also increase the effectiveness of the internal operations of tax and customs administrations, and can reduce costs, as they improve their capacity to collect revenue with smarter use of the information they collect. Of particular interest is machine learning, which can be used to solve difficult problems that arise from the inability of revenue administrations to process massive amounts of data efficiently. Technology by itself can only provide tools. To achieve meaningful and impactful goals, a comprehensive strategy must be defined, covering the regulatory, institutional, and operational aspects. This paper analyzes such aspects and provides a roadmap for policymakers and tax officials on how to incorporate and manage disruptive technologies into the process of building the tax and customs administrations of tomorrow.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Tax Theory Applied to the Digital Economy: A Proposal for a Digital Data Tax and a Global Internet Tax Agency
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-03-02) Lucas-Mas, Cristian Óliver; Junquera-Varela, Raúl Félix
    Digital technology allows businesses to operate in a country without a physical presence, which poses challenges for traditional taxation. The digital debate focuses on direct taxation and the creation of new taxing rights arising from the tax claims of market jurisdictions on income obtained by foreign digital suppliers conducting business therein without any physical presence. Tax Theory Applied to the Digital Economy analyzes the tax-disruptive aspects of digital business models and reviews current tax initiatives in light of traditional tax theory principles. The analysis concludes that market countries’ tax claims are unsubstantiated and contravene the most basic foundations of tax theory, giving rise to a series of legal, economic, tax policy, and tax administration issues that policy makers cannot overlook. The authors propose establishing a digital data tax (DDT) that is a license-type consumption tax, rather than an income tax, on the international supply of Internet bandwidth to access digital markets. The DDT can be applied either globally or unilaterally, and could become a significant source of tax revenues for market jurisdictions. It is aligned with tax principles and it does not conflict with other tax initiatives: the DDT taxes foreign digital companies as consumers, while income tax proposals tax them as suppliers. The authors also propose creating a new global Internet tax agency (GITA) under the auspices of the United Nations that would provide a neutral forum for political discussion and technical assistance in the area of digital taxation. The digital economy is a global phenomenon that requires a global solution: the creation of global taxing mechanisms and global institutions that provide technical assistance and support for successful global implementation. The book explains difficult technical concepts in plain language and contributes to the digital tax debate in a way that can be understood by anyone. Such understanding is essential to obtaining global support, achieving tax compliance, and fostering multilateral tax cooperation.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    COVID-19: Tax Policy and Revenue Administration Implications
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-22) Junquera-Varela, Raúl Félix; Lucas-Mas, Cristian Óliver
    This note brings together current thinking among global and regional teams on governance and institutional approaches to dealing with COVID-19. With a focus on tax policy and revenue administrations, it presents governance and institutional reforms that could support revenue administration responses to the pandemic.1 COVID-19 has brought about a new normal in which work practices should change. Shocks usually trigger responses, and a productive response here will be to automate tax and customs services over the medium term and to massively accelerate the use of digital and virtual technologies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    COVID-19 and Taxation: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-21) Junquera-Varela, Raúl Félix; Alvarez Estrada, Daniel; Lucas-Mas, Cristian Óliver
    The objective of this working paper is to provide guidance on the dilemma that governments are facing because of the economic crisis triggered by COVID-19. Measures adopted by governments during the contention phase to alleviate cash flow pressures on taxpayers require budget expenditures that exacerbate revenue losses from reduced tax bases. In parallel, governments are struggling with public expenditure needs that call for creating fiscal space. During this crisis there has been a significant increase in digital transactions as well as an acceleration of digital economy business models and trends. As a result, new income sources have appeared, and governments must find ways of taxing them. The first part of this paper provides guidance on practical measures that may be applied by tax authorities to strengthen cash management and alleviate cash flow constraints on taxpayers. Most of these measures are applicable primarily during the contention phase of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, but there are others well positioned to support the recovery phase. This paper elaborates on some of the recommendations profiled in the ‘Revenue Measurements on Tax and Customs’ document produced by the Fiscal Policy and Sustainable Growth unit,2 which serves as the umbrella document for this one. The main scope of this paper is to further develop specific practical measures for improving the cash management of businesses and households faced with liquidity constraints during this period. It also provides recommendations to revenue administrations for improving compliance and receipt monitoring during the contention phase. The second part of this paper focuses on post-crisis measures that may compensate for the fiscal deficit generated by cash flow management and temporary tax relief measures. This paper is a continuation, from a cash flow management perspective, of previous World Bank Group research conducted in the areas of fiscal policy and revenue administration implications in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.