Publication:
A Handbook for Tax Simplification

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (5.35 MB)
3,759 downloads
English Text (699.46 KB)
1,344 downloads
Date
2009
ISSN
Published
2009
Editor(s)
Abstract
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.
Link to Data Set
Citation
International Finance Corporation; Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency; World Bank. 2009. A Handbook for Tax Simplification. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28206 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Enhancing Non-SACU Revenue in Swaziland : Improving Tax Policy and Administration
    (Washington, DC, 2010-12) World Bank
    The collapse of Southern African Customs Union (SACU) revenue in 2009 has caused the Government to consider enhancing new sources of revenue in earnest to sustain its development policies. Existing plans that were prepared more than 5 years ago to introduce the Value-Added Tax (VAT) and create a new Revenue Authority (RA) focused on improved compliance are therefore more relevant than ever. This initial preparation provides ample room to rapidly improve both the design of taxes and fees and tax administration to ensure they are in line with both Swaziland's unique policy context and sound economic principles. These principles include: (i) policy and administration harmonization with South Africa so that investors view both countries as offering the same tax benefits and to facilitate the seamless launch of the RA with the benefit of the necessary support from (and partial integration with) South Africa's operations; (ii) the ability to implement reform rapidly given the fiscal emergency; and (iii) the need for simple and resilient policy and administrative designs that are able to cope with limited administrative capacity and a history of out-of-control spending.
  • Publication
    Tax at a Glance for ECA Countries
    (Washington, DC, 2013-09) World Bank
    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.
  • Publication
    Tax Morale and Compliance : Review of Evidence and Case Studies for Europe
    (2011-12-01) Torgler, Benno
    This paper provides an overview of the literature on tax morale and tax compliance. Most of the material here is based on research that I have conducted together with my co-authors over the last 10 years. Europe has a dominant place in this paper. Sometimes results derived from other countries are discussed that could be relevant for Europe. The overall findings show the importance of accountability, democratic governance, efficient, and transparent legal structures and therefore trust within the society to enforce tax compliance and tax morale.
  • Publication
    Pakistan - Tax Policy Report : Tapping Tax Bases for Development - Summary Report
    (World Bank, 2009-07-01) World Bank
    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
    Taxation, Information, and Withholding
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-03) Brockmeyer, Anne; Hernandez, Marco
    This paper studies tax withholding on business sales, a widely used compliance mechanism which is largely ignored by public finance theory. The study introduces a withholding scheme, whereby the payer in a transaction collects tax from the payee, in a standard evasion model. If the taxpayer can fully reclaim the tax withheld, withholding is irrelevant to her evasion decision. If reclaim is costly, however, withholding establishes a compliance default. To show this empirically, the analysis exploits a ten-year panel of registration, income tax and sales tax records from 400,000 firms in Costa Rica, and over 20 million third-party information and withholding reports. The paper first documents the anatomy of compliance, providing novel measures of compliance gaps on the extensive, intensive and payment margins. It then shows that interventions leveraging the existing third-party information reduce these compliance gaps only marginally. Coverage by a withholding scheme, in contrast, is correlated with higher reported taxable income both across firms and within firms across time. Quasi-experimental estimations show that a doubling of the withholding rate leads to a 40 percent increase in tax payment among treated firms and a 10 percent increase in aggregate revenue. The mechanisms are incomplete reclaim of the tax withheld and reduced misreporting.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Looking Beyond the Horizon
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06) Mihretu, Mamo; Llobet, Gabriela
    The story of how the PVH Corp. (referred to throughout this document as PVH) came to leada group of its top suppliers to build factories and a fabric mill in Ethiopia’s Hawassa IndustrialPark (HIP) is the study of a strong collaboration between a private company looking to optimizeits business model and a government aiming to transform its economy through global strategic repositioning. The success of this story hinges upon the intersection of their goals and a shared vision of development that includes a strong commitment to social and environmental goals.PVH was motivated to invest in Ethiopia to respond to shifts in the global apparel sector, its growing desire to retool its business model and to address its concerns about compliance with social and environmental standards in its traditional sourcing locations. PVH had decided to rethink its business model and to look beyond the horizon towards a new region in which tolocate its manufacturing base. To have better oversight and enforcement, PVH moved to adopta fully integrated vertical supply chain, including direct investment in one of the manufacturingfacilities.Key to Ethiopia’s success in attracting this important investor was the government’s ability and willingness to strategically evaluate its foreign direct investment (FDI) needs and strategy and to take steps to evolve into an attractive location for higher value-added export-oriented investment.This case study explains a private investor’s site selection process. It assesses the elements PVH prioritized when deciding to commit to Ethiopia, and specifically to HIP. The case study further assesses the government of Ethiopia’s strategy, level of readiness, interest, and commitment, and sets out some key challenges that lie ahead for this partnership. The case study is structured in ten sections. Section second offers a brief background on the textile and apparel industry, including an explanation of its value chain. It provides a brief corporate profile of PVH and its current global footprint and business model. Section third describes the site selection process: PVH´s initial explorations in Africa, its consideration of several African countries, and its initial conversations and negotiations with Ethiopian authorities. Section fourth discusses the Ethiopian government’s strategy to attract and expand export-oriented investments, including efforts to bolster the country’s competitiveness. This section attempts to offer some explanation why Ethiopia was the right fit at the right time and its level of readiness to land such an investment. It provides a brief profile of PVH’s Africa point of entry, the HIP. Section sixth covers the challenges that lie ahead for this-project---potential setbacks that will affect not only the consolidation and growth of the textiles and apparel industry in Ethiopia, but also the government’s vision of becoming the “manufacturing powerhouse of Africa.” Section eighth concludes with some key lessons from PVH’s decision to invest in Ethiopia. Such lessons may be relevant to countries or regions interested inattracting FDI and may be of particular interest to other African countries in their quest to attract major investments in the textile and apparel sector.
  • Publication
    Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05) World Bank
    Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.
  • Publication
    Mozambique
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-08-04) Marquez, Patricio V.; Krasovsky, Konstantin; Andreeva, Tatiana
    Mozambique ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control only in 2017, but some tobacco control policies were already implemented in the country before that. The prevalence of current tobacco use in 2003 was about 40 percent in men and 18 percent in women, while women consumed predominantly smokeless tobacco. Between 2003 and 2011, the level of tobacco use among women decreased: the prevalence of smoking remained at the same level, but the use of other tobacco products substantially declined. However, among men, the prevalence of current cigarette smoking increased. The volumes of annual cigarette sales increased from about 2.5 billion cigarettes in 2006-2010 to about 3.7 billion cigarettes in 2012-2013 and then declined in 2014-2016. Since 2010, the tiered specific excises for cigarettes and mixed (ad valorem and specific) excises for other tobacco have been in place. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, the excise rates were increased. In 2013-2016 combined, tobacco prices in Mozambique increased by 85 percent in nominal terms, or by 27 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. Over those years, inflation-adjusted GDP per capita increased by 14, and so, cigarettes became less affordable. In 2013-2015, the increase in tobacco excise became one of the factors of the price increase, which reduced tobacco affordability and probably reduced tobacco consumption and sales in the country. Tobacco excise revenue increased from 3.2 billion MZN in 2012 to 3.75 billion MZN in 2015. However, all neighboring countries have cigarette prices and taxes much higher than Mozambique. In such a situation, cigarette smuggling out of Mozambique is rather common, while cigarette smuggling into Mozambique is very unlikely. Even in the report commissioned by the tobacco industry, percentage of contraband cigarettes at the Mozambican market was estimated to be only 1-2 percent of total consumption. The following recommendations could provide both public health and fiscal benefits for Mozambique: As the first step, cigarette specific excise rates should be unified for all kinds of cigarettes at the level currently used for hard-pack cigarettes. Then, the unified rate should be annually increased to make tobacco products less affordable over time in order to reduce consumption and prevalence in line with FCTC provisions. The issue of cigarette smuggling should not be used in hindering the implementation of tax and price policies. Increase of cigarette taxes and prices in Mozambique would reduce cigarette smuggling out of the country, and it would reduce tobacco consumption in the neighboring countries. Tobacco control monitoring, including economic information on tobacco products sales, prices, and other indicators, should be much improved in the country to support more precise forecasts of the outcomes of the current and future tobacco control activities.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2017
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30) World Bank Group
    Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2018
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018) World Bank
    Every year, the World Bank's World Development Report takes on a topic of central importance to global development. The 2018 Report, Learning to Realize Education's Promise, is the first ever devoted entirely to education. Now is an excellent time for it: education has long been critical for human welfare, but is even more so in a time of rapid economic change. The Report explores four main themes. First, education's promise: Education is a powerful instrument for eradicating poverty and promoting shared prosperity, but fulfilling its potential requires better policies - both within and outside the education system. Second, the learning crisis: Despite gains in education access, recent learning assessments show that many young people around the world, especially from poor families, are leaving school unequipped with even the most foundational skills they need for life. At the same time, internationally comparable learning assessments show that skills in many middle-income countries lag far behind what those countries aspire to. Third, promising interventions to improve learning: Research from areas such as brain science, pedagogical innovations, or school management have identified interventions that promote learning by ensuring that learners are prepared, that teachers are skilled as well as motivated, and that other inputs support the teacher-learner relationship. Fourth, learning at scale: Achieving learning throughout an education system will require more than just scaling up effective interventions. Change requires overcoming technical and political barriers by deploying salient metrics for mobilizing actors and tracking progress, building coalitions for learning, and being adaptive when implementing programs.