Publication: Paying Taxes 2012: The Global Picture
Loading...
Date
2012
ISSN
Published
2012
Editor(s)
Abstract
The objectives of the study are to provide data which can be compared between economies on a like-for-like basis; to facilitate the benchmarking of tax systems within relevant economic and geographical groupings, which can provide an opportunity to learn from peer group economies; and to enable an in-depth analysis of the results which can be used to help identify good practices and possible reforms. The private sector plays an essential role in contributing to economic growth and prosperity. Companies contribute to socio-economic development by employing workers, improving the skills and knowledge base, buying from local suppliers and providing products and services that improve people's lives. They also contribute to government revenues through generating and paying taxes. The paying taxes study is unique because it generates a set of indicators that measure the world's tax systems from the point of view of business and also because it covers the full range of taxes paid in 183 economies, measuring how business complies with the different tax laws and regulations in each economy.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank; International Finance Corporation; PricewaterhouseCoopers. 2012. Paying Taxes 2012: The Global Picture. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27087 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Paying Taxes 2013 : The Global Picture(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013)The paying taxes indicators (the total tax rate, the time to comply and the number of payments) have now been part of the World Bank Group Doing Business project for eight years, monitoring the changes and reforms made to tax regimes around the world. The simple aim of the study is to supply business leaders and policy makers with robust data to enable tax systems to be compared on a like for like basis, and to help inform the dialogue which underlies the development of tax policy. The study is unique in that it now not only covers 185 economies, but it also provides an insight into how tax systems have developed over a significant period of time, using a consistent methodology. The author has focused on the trends that the Paying Taxes data show, both at the global level, and also by geographical region. Globally it is now easier for firms to pay taxes than eight years ago. Both the administrative burden and the average tax rates have decreased over this period. The studies for some time have shown a trend toward a lowering of corporate tax rates and a broadening of the tax base. In last year's publication the pace of reform continued but with an increasing focus on improving the administrative aspects of the tax system. This year's results are more complex; administrative reforms have continued, but the fall in average global tax rates seems to have stalled; this may indicate that tax rates are stabilizing as the pressure on public finances to grow.Publication Paying Taxes 2014 : The Global Picture(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2013-11-19)Paying Taxes 2014 looks at tax regimes in 189 economies as part of the Doing Business series. The period covered by the study, 2004 to 2012, has seen the end of a sustained period of economic growth, a severe recession and a slow recovery. Governments continue to be under the pressure balance the need to attract investment and foster growth while generating tax revenues. This report finds that governments continue to reform their tax systems despite global economic uncertainty, with 32 economies having taken steps from June last year through May 2013 to make it easier and cost less for small and medium businesses to pay taxes. The report finds that the most common tax reform undertaken by 11 economies is the introduction or improvement of electronic filing, eliminating the need for 74 separate tax payments and reducing compliance time by almost 200 hours in total. On average around the world it now takes our case study company 268 hours to comply with its taxes, it makes 26.7 payments and has an average total tax rate of 43.1 percent. The range for each sub-indicator is very wide. The number of payments ranges from 3 in Hong Kong SAR, China and Saudi Arabia to 71 in República Bolivariana de Venezuela. The time to comply is lowest in the United Arab Emirates where it takes 12 hours to deal with the taxes that apply, all of which are labor taxes. The highest number of hours is still taken by our company in Brazil. It takes 2,600 hours with more than half of this time being spent on consumption taxes. Until 2008, 7 of the 8 geographical regions covered in the report had consistently recorded a fall in their average total tax rate. This changed in 2009 when only 5 regions recorded a fall. This fell to 3 in 2011 and in the latest study only Africa and South America show a fall in the total tax rate while all other regions show an increase apart from Asia Pacific and EU and EFTA where rates of 36.6 percent and 42.5 percent respectively have been maintained. Over the nine years of the study the total tax rate attributable to profit taxes have fallen faster than that for labor taxes so that labor taxes are now the largest element of the total tax rate. While the average time to comply has fallen by 55 hours over the 9 years of the study, the rate of decline has slowed dramatically in the most recent period, falling by only 1 hour between 2011 and 2012. Over the nine years of study, the greatest improvement on time has been seen for labor taxes (23 hours). The number of hours has fallen by 19 hours for consumption taxes and by 13 hours for corporate income tax.Publication A Handbook for Tax Simplification(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009)The purpose of this handbook is to provide policy makers with a framework to assess a tax system in its entirety, measure its various parameters and how it is administered, and defines best practices for tax policy and administration that will yield a tax system that is simple and predictable and does not create an undue burden on private enterprise. This handbook is primarily designed for policy makers and tax practitioners. The goal is to analyze the impact of income tax, the value added tax (VAT), and other local taxes that are imposed on business. This handbook does not analyze the effects of trade and labor taxes such as social security. The administration of the customs duty is unique and has been addressed extensively in the literature on customs modernization. Labor taxes primarily imposed on salaried individuals are not covered by this handbook, even though their incidence affects business. VAT has been included even though it is a tax on consumption because the administrative burden to comply with it is primarily on business.Publication Pakistan - Tax Policy Report : Tapping Tax Bases for Development - Full Report(World Bank, 2009-07-01)The 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.Publication Tax at a Glance for ECA Countries(Washington, DC, 2013-09)The 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.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication The Journey Ahead(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-31)The Journey Ahead: Supporting Successful Migration in Europe and Central Asia provides an in-depth analysis of international migration in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and the implications for policy making. By identifying challenges and opportunities associated with migration in the region, it aims to inform a more nuanced, evidencebased debate on the costs and benefits of cross-border mobility. Using data-driven insights and new analysis, the report shows that migration has been an engine of prosperity and has helped address some of ECA’s demographic and socioeconomic disparities. Yet, migration’s full economic potential remains untapped. The report identifies multiple barriers keeping migration from achieving its full potential. Crucially, it argues that policies in both origin and destination countries can help maximize the development impacts of migration and effectively manage the economic, social, and political costs. Drawing from a wide range of literature, country experiences, and novel analysis, The Journey Ahead presents actionable policy options to enhance the benefits of migration for destination and origin countries and migrants themselves. Some measures can be taken unilaterally by countries, whereas others require close bilateral or regional coordination. The recommendations are tailored to different types of migration— forced displacement as well as high-skilled and low-skilled economic migration—and from the perspectives of both sending and receiving countries. This report serves as a comprehensive resource for governments, development partners, and other stakeholders throughout Europe and Central Asia, where the richness and diversity of migration experiences provide valuable insights for policy makers in other regions of the world.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.