Publication: Paying Taxes 2013 : The Global Picture
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2013
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2013-11-13
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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.
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“World Bank; International Finance Corporation; PricewaterhouseCoopers. 2013. Paying Taxes 2013 : The Global Picture. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16250 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO.”
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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. 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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). 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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.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. 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Governments also often find it useful to be able to learn from the experience of economies in their peer group and to consider whether a measure adopted elsewhere may be relevant for the economy.Publication Tax Reform in Vietnam(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09-30)In 2010, after two decades of rapid economic growth, Vietnam passed the threshold to become a lower-middle-income economy. Sustained market-oriented reforms combined with intensive efforts to integrate into the world economy are among the key drivers of this achievement. The reform of tax policy and administration has been a vital part of this transition. This is leading to a fundamental change in the composition of taxpayers, from large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and foreign-invested companies to a myriad of small and medium private enterprises. Economic transition is also leading to an equally important change in the sources of government revenue, away from cross-border trade-related taxes and revenue collection from crude oil toward a greater share of domestic tax revenue, in particular taxation of business profits, labor income, and capital gains on land. However, completing the transition to a market economy will require changes going beyond tax collection and administration procedures, and will involve changes to the tax instruments themselves. At the end of this process, Vietnam should have a set of taxes that is simple and transparent, secures a stable flow of revenues for the government, encourages an efficient allocation of resources, and does not risk constituting a source of inequality or unfairness. The purpose of the series of studies in this volume is to shed light on the issues Vietnam will be facing in the process of reforming its tax policy and administration. The studies are also expected to lead to concrete policy recommendations contributing to the preparation of key policies and legislative documents to ensure the achievement of the state budget revenue target and other tax administration reform targets in the SEDP 2011-2015. It is expected that the individual studies in this series will become useful inputs into the debate surrounding the issuance of new laws and regulations. It is also hoped that the volume will support the reform momentum in the tax policy area, leading to increased efficiency, transparency, and equity.
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